NAIS Cluster
The NAIS Graduate Cluster is an interdisciplinary space for exchange, research and study that seeks to provide support for graduate students working in or adjacent to Native American and Indigenous Studies. Through the cluster, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students come together for intellectual exchange, cross-pollination, and activism. Cluster members come from the departments of Art History, English, Learning Sciences, History, Psychology, and Sociology. We meet several times per quarter to discuss cluster members’ research and engage with guest speakers.The NAIS Cluster aims to create opportunities and training in NAIS for our students through our invited speakers, yearly themes, professionalization workshops, mentoring and symposia. Past cluster speakers include Hi’ilei Hobart (UT-Austin), on going on the job market in NAIS; Elizabeth Hoover (Brown), speaking on her book The River is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community; Christine DeLucia (History, Williams College), on place-based, collaborative research; and Chad Allen (U of Washington, past editor of Studies in American Indian Literature) and Jean M. O’Brien (U of Minnesota, past editor of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal), both on publishing.
Requirements
- Complete cluster course requirements by taking three courses that address NAIS topics or scholarship.
- Attend Center-sponsored conversations and events on research and professionalization with visiting speakers through attendance and workshops.
- Attend major conferences in NAIS (such as NAISA annual meeting) to present scholarship and attend panels (Center funding will be available for both attendance and presentations)
- Apply for and attend Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies summer institute and spring workshop and fellowships (1 graduate student/organization is allowed to attend the institute and workshop each year. Students apply to the Consortium liaison at each campus. Consortium students are also eligible to apply for summer fellowships).
- Participate in mentoring workshops with faculty and postdoctoral fellows
- Present on research at end of year symposia
- Attend workshops on academic and alt-ac career opportunities hosted by the Center and TGS
- Engage in activism on and off campus related to NAIS issues
- Opportunity to serve on planning committee, chaired by cluster director, to select visiting speakers and themes for professionalization events and to organize these events
- Opportunity to serve as graduate student representative on NAIS Center steering committee (one position, rotating)