Belin M. Tsinnajinnie, PhD

Dr. Belin M. Tsinnajinnie (he/him) is Diné and Filipinx from Na’ Neelzhiin, New Mexico. He is currently a researcher in mathematics education for WestEd, an education nonprofit. Belin’s primary research interests pertain to issues of social justice and equity in mathematics education through Indigenous perspectives. Prior to WestEd, Belin was a mathematics faculty member at Santa Fe Community College and, prior to that, a faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Belin received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of New Mexico; and an MS and PhD from the University of Arizona in mathematics, with a doctoral dissertation that explored notions of mathematical identity in the context of Indigenous and Latinx students.

Belin approaches the doing, teaching, and learning of mathematics through sociocultural and sociopolitical lenses. More namely, Belin seeks to interrogate assumptions about mathematics being universal and culture-free by examining who historically has decided what counts as mathematics in formal education settings, whose contributions to mathematics get excluded, and the political forces that drive these assumptions. Indigenous histories and knowledge systems are essential here to compare and contrast in order to better understand the relationships between colonization, assimilation, and formal mathematics education. Through research, through relationship building, and through reciprocity, Belin is hopeful that such collective and critical examinations of the sociohistorical and sociopolitcal forces driving mathematics education can lead to a reimagined future of mathematics education for all.