Maya Isabel Lazzaro
Maya Lazzaro is a Native American scholar with a BA in Culture & Media and Journalism & Design department at The New School: Eugene Lang. She is currently in her MA studies at the American Studies department at the University of New Mexico. She has served as a teaching assistant for two undergraduate courses, Creative Placemaking in Harlem and Migration/Immigration in Buenos Aires. For over two years she has been invited to teach various labs and classes at the Smithsonian Museum of American Indian and as taught there as an artist, artist educator and teacher. Maya has served as a Youth Educator at the Smithsonian for a hands-on educational exhibit on Native America innovation, science, math and medicine. Maya contributed in designing and opening the exhibit, and it remains open to this day, educating youth from all over the globe. Maya is Quechua, and mixed descent, including Italian and Jewish roots. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York (original territories Lenapehoking). Her personal values are strongly focused in Indigenous ancestral knowledge, revitalization of language and being an ethical scholar and educator in science, culture, and art. Maya believes scholarship is found in research, methods, theory as well as on the land and stars. Her Quechua traditions have taught her the importance of storytelling, and record keeping; recently she has been researching the Quechua traditional use of quipus and its importance in recording and storing data.
