Theodore (Ted) Jojola, PhD, is the founder and Director of the Indigenous Design + Planning Institute, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico (UNM). iD+Pi works with tribal communities throughout the SW region as well as internationally by facilitating culturally informed approaches to community development. He is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta.
He is an emeritus Distinguished Professor and Regents’ Professor in the UNM Community & Regional Planning Department retiring in 2025. From 2008-2010, he was Visiting Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University where he was a member of the faculty of the School Geographic Sciences and Planning. In 2023, he was a Visiting Indigenous Scholar at the Department of Environmental and Urban Change, York University as well as the Indigenous Resilience Institute, University of Arizona. He was Director of Native American Studies at UNM from 1980-1996, and established the interdisciplinary undergraduate degree program in Native Studies. In 2015, he helped establish a Graduate Concentration in Indigenous Planning, the only one in the nation.
He is actively involved in major research projects on Indian education, Indigenous community development and architecture. He is coeditor of two books—The Native American Philosophy of V.F. Cordova entitled How It Is (U. of Arizona Press, 2007) and Reclaiming Indigenous Planning (McGill-Queens University Press, 2013). A third book is in the works, Contemporary Indigenous Architecture: Local Traditions, Global Winds (working title, UNM Press). In addition, he has published numerous articles and chapters on topics relating to indigenous design & planning, stereotyping and economic development. He also has a limited podcast series entitled PlaceKnowing.
More information on iD+Pi is available on its website: idpi.unm.edu