Urban Bird Project is located in San Antonio, Texas—originally named Yanawana meaning place where I rest in Carrizo/Comecrudo language or Spirit Waters in Pajalate which refers to the San Antonio River as a source of life. Yanawana’s original inhabitants held deep ties to the local land and animals—diligently documenting its ecological importance through ancestral wisdom passed down through generations.
Who We Are
The #UrbanBirdProject is an interdisciplinary humanities and community science program that brings Avian Ecology, Mexican-American Studies, and Indigenous Studies together through local, migratory, and culturally significant birds. Originally funded through a USDA-HSI Grant, and Mellon Foundation grant, the project is led by faculty and doctoral students from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and community members across South Texas, Greater México, and beyond.
Our Goals
#UrbanBirdProject engages Yanawana, South Texas, and Greater México in interdisciplinary projects in order to: (1) resource efforts to reclaim traditional ecological knowledge already existing in the Texas-México borderlands; (2) train graduate and undergraduate students in transdisciplinary and community-based decolonial research methodologies; (3) create sustainable collaborative university/community partnerships where community-based research can be brought to bear on issues of local environmental justice and ecology; and (4) create broad public access to humanities-led programming in environmental justice.
How Will We Accomplish Our Goals
#UrbanBirdProject forwards a series of community-university events that increases cross-cultural understanding of the importance of birds across communities. Our interdisciplinary work includes: (1) a cross-college, team-taught course in community-based decolonial research, which promotes student theoretical and methodological development; (2) a UBP Mellon fellows program that closely mentors students in community-based decolonial interdisciplinary research, including a series of public events with leading Indigenous ancestral knowledge holders, artists, community experts, and humanities scholars; (3) a digital humanities repository preserving earth knowledge in South Texas, México, and the Américas; and (4) multiple interdisciplinary environmental justice research projects.
Disclaimer
All birds were captured and banded under Federal and State permits and a protocol approved by the UTSA IACUC by trained personnel.
Our Involvement (2018 - present)
From our work in community with urban schools and neigborhoods, we continue to build connections across San Antonio, South Texas, and Greater México. Come back often to find new updates and new memories.
