Welcome Graduate Students
Posoh, Boozhoo, Yá'át'ééh, ᎤᎵᎮᎵᏍᏗ,
We are glad you are here. Whether virtual or in person (soon!) we look forward to meeting you. On this page you will find information and links to CNAIR Graduate Fellowships, the NAIS Cluster, and graduate student organizations.
CNAIR Fellowships
The Center’s graduate student fellowship program seeks to generate and support research that is responsive to and engaged with Native communities and organizations and NAIS research. Graduate students will receive mentoring in Indigenous methodologies; present their work at the CNAIR research symposium; and join a community of scholars dedicated to work that is interdisciplinary and oriented both to critical inquiry and to its repercussions for communities inside and outside the university. We welcome fellowship applications from Northwestern graduate students in all disciplines, including the social sciences, humanities, science and engineering, business, law, and medicine.
Learn more about applying for a fellowship.
View our current and past fellows.
TGS NAIS Cluster
The Graduate School (TGS) Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Cluster
Cluster Overview on TGS Website
NAIS Cluster Requirements on TGS Website
The Graduate School’s interdisciplinary clusters facilitate connections between doctoral students and faculty who share research interests yet may not be in the same department or program. These initiatives enable participating graduate students to join a cohort of students not only in their degree program but also potentially in many other departments, labs, and research traditions who are working on a common set of problems. In this way, many TGS students experience “dual citizenship” in both a degree program and interdisciplinary area. Many draw upon these experiences when designing their research projects, preparing for qualifying exams, and selecting dissertation committees.
The Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Cluster creates space for intellectual exchange and study in the theories and topics of NAIS. An interdisciplinary field encompassing such areas as history, law, literature, political science, medicine, environmental studies, and more, NAIS examines Native cultural expressions, legal and political issues, and lived experiences across time, place, and disciplinary categories. NAIS produces scholarship, creative expressions, and praxis that are theoretically informed and engaged with or responsive to tribal nations and communities and that seek to understand and transform political, pedagogical, and institutional structures grounded in settler colonialism (the dispossession and elimination of Native people).
Graduate Student Organizations
Learn more about Indigenous Graduate Student Collective here.