<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1DqYGe_19hlqNfL00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1DqYGe_19hlqNfL00" width="840" height="560" ><figcaption>Elliott Portillo / Cal Poly Humboldt Adolfo Soberanis at the Arcata Veterans Hall in January.</figcaption></figure>Adolfo Soberanis, a Native American Studies instructor at Cal Poly Humboldt, presented (Re)imagining (Real)ity, a reality check on the power and peril of imagination in shaping how we see the world, and something Indigenous researchers call the “parenthetical “re-.” The lecture was recorded on January 28th, 2026 and the event was hosted by Joice Chang, interim Dean with Humboldt's College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Soberanis’ lecture explores illusions people create, such as the “natural world” versus the “unnatural world,” and the importance of imagination. Society, he suggests, is caught in a kind of cognitive dissonance: people recognize that the world is “natural,” yet our ways of thinking seem “unnatural,” leaving many feeling disconnected or unsure. He helps audiences understand the parenthetical prefix “re-,” used by Indigenous researchers, to (re)imagine, (re)consider, (re)connect. But he warns that imagination always has consequences that will affect the next six generations of life.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3prYJP_19hlqNfL00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3prYJP_19hlqNfL00" width="840" height="560" ><figcaption>Elliott Portillo / Cal Poly Humboldt Adolfo Soberanis and MC Joice Chang at the Arcata Veterans Hall.</figcaption></figure>In this talk, Soberanis invites listeners to learn to live “within the parentheses” and consider what new ways of being might emerge when they loosen their grip on what they’ve been conditioned to think is real.Soberanis’s extensive teaching and creative work draw on Indigenous teachings, literature, and environmental understandings of interconnectedness. Of Nahua and Navajo descent, Soberanis is an elder within the National Compadres Network and facilitator of men’s circles (Círculos de Hombres). Soberanis intertwines oral traditions and scholarship in line with other Indigenous scholars; ways of (re)centering Indigenous knowledge systems and (re)framing common ideas to return to effective understandings of reality. An example of this (re)framing is the removal of the dams on the Klamath River, which has not been a “starting over” project but is, instead, a (re)creation of abundance.“‘My Best Lecture’ aims to spark creative exchange, bringing together staff, students, and faculty, as well as the community, to engage with the ideas that most inspire the people teaching at Humboldt,” says Chang, who is leading the series. “The speakers we select are nominated by students, faculty, and staff, which helps to democratize our selection process and bring our outstanding academics into the spotlight.”The lecture series will continue, with the aim of expanding to include speakers from across all departments in the future. This airing supercedes SNAFUBAR, which resumes its regular schedule the following Sunday. </div></body>

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Adolfo Soberanis, a Native American Studies instructor at Cal Poly Humboldt, presented (Re)imagining (Real)ity, a reality check on the power and peril of imagination in shaping how we see the world, and something Indigenous researchers call the “parenthetical “re-.” The lecture was recorded on January 28th, 2026 and the event was hosted by Joice Chang, interim Dean with Humboldt's College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

'My Best Lecture' with Adolfo Soberanis on 3/22

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Adolfo Soberanis, a Native American Studies instructor at Cal Poly Humboldt, presented (Re)imagining (Real)ity, a reality check on the power and peril of i

'My Best Lecture' with Adolfo Soberanis on 3/22

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