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Native American Studies: Visiting Professors/Scholars

Charles Eastman Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
Dissertation Fellowship for Underrepresented Minority Scholars

Dartmouth College invites applications for the César Chávez / Charles A. Eastman / Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellowships from US citizens who plan careers in college or university teaching. The goal of the Chávez / Eastman / Marshall fellowship program is to promote student and faculty diversity at Dartmouth, and throughout higher education, by supporting completion of the doctorate by underrepresented minority scholars (including African-American, Latina/o, and Native American scholars) and other graduate scholars with a demonstrated commitment and ability to advance educational diversity.

The Fellowships support graduate scholars for a year-long residency at Dartmouth that generally runs from September through August. They offer an opportunity for scholars who plan a career in higher education and have completed all other Ph.D. requirements to finish their dissertations with access to the outstanding libraries, computing facilities and faculty of Dartmouth College. In addition, Fellows will participate in classroom activities with scholars who are dedicated to undergraduate teaching. Fellows may be pursuing the Ph.D. degree in any discipline or area taught in the Dartmouth undergraduate Arts and Sciences curriculum. Each Fellow will be affiliated with a department or program at the College.

Three Fellowships will be awarded. Each Fellowship provides a stipend of $25,000, office space, library privileges, and a $2,500 research assistance fund. Fellows will be expected to complete the dissertation during the tenure of the Fellowship and may have the opportunity to participate in teaching, either as a primary instructor or as part of a team.

Applicants will be selected on the basis of: academic achievement and promise; membership in a racial or ethnic group that is currently underrepresented among faculty in the applicant's academic field; demonstrated commitment to increasing opportunities for underrepresented minorities and increasing cross-racial understanding; and potential for serving as an advocate and mentor for minority undergraduate and graduate students.

Consideration will be made for scholars who seek to share their research as presenters and lecturers in the Dartmouth community. Each fellow will be expected to participate in selected activities with undergraduate students (for example, presenting guest lectures in classes, serving in programs for minority students interested in academic careers, and interacting with undergraduate majors in host departments).

Recipients of the Chávez / Eastman / Marshall Dissertation Fellowships will be appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies, upon the recommendation of a faculty selection committee in consultation with appropriate departments.

Application process: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gradstdy/funding/fellowship/process.html

Questions: Office of Graduate Studies, Dartmouth College, 6062 Wentworth Hall, Room 304, Hanover, NH 03755-3526. Telephone: (603) 646-6578.

Application Deadline: February 1, 2010
Award Announcement: April 1, 2010

Dartmouth College is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action organization. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

Dartmouth's Eastman Fellow Alumni:

• Maile Arvin (2012-2013) -(Native Hawaiian) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California at San Diego. Her dissertation, "The Science of Settler Colonialism: Native Hawaiian Indigeneity Amidst Hawai'i's 'Racial Mix,' examines the legacies of scientific constructions of race in Hawai'i for Native Hawaiians. Her work uses Indigenous feminist frameworks in addressing the history of eugenics, blood quantum, and the image of Hawai 'i as a multicultural, "racial paradise" as well as the complicated ways that Native Hawaiians today respond to the consequences of these histories. Her interests also include: anti-colonial feminisms, human rights and global Indigenous movements, genomics, science and technology studies, and Pacific Island/Oceania studies.

• Mattie Harper (2011-2012) -(Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe): Mattie is a doctoral candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality. Her dissertation, tentatively titled "French Africans in Indian Country," is a historical project examining identify formation by focusing on four generations of one family in the Western Great Lakes region. Her work raises questions about the construction of race, Native American identity formation, and cross-cultural encounters in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her main interests include: cross-cultural relations in Early North America, Ojibwe history, the intersecting lives of Native Americans and African Americans, 19th century U.S. history, the fur trade, racial intermarriage and the construction of race, and 20th century Native American intellectuals

• Chukan Brown (2010-2011) - (Aleut and Inupiat) is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy at McGill University, with a Graduate Certificate in Gender and Women's Studies. At McGill she studied as a Tomlinson Fellow from 2005-2008, and is currently a Bristol Bay Native Corporation Higher Education Scholar. For the last two years she has been a full time Instructor at Northern Arizona University teaching Ethics, Epistemology, and Social Philosophy. Her doctoral work considers questions of indigenous identity by beginning first with a critique of contemporary race theory and theories of social identity. Elaine is a member of The Emergent Identities Working Group, a research collective working on questions of indigenous identity from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and also works with other indigenous writers from around the United States to explore the question of what it means to be Native American today through poetry and prose.

• Noelani Arista (2009-2010) - (Hawaiian) is our fellow for 2009-2010. Noelani is a doctoral candidate in American History at Brandeis University. Her dissertation "Outrage and Silence: Encountering History in Early Nineteenth-Century Hawai'i" begins in New England with the question, 'What did Americans know about Hawai'i before the first settlers arrived in 1819?' The dissertation re-orients the discussion about the role New England missionaries played in Hawaiian politics and governance, the formation of law and persistence of kapu(oral chiefly pronouncement) in the decades before the first Hawaiian constitution(1840). Her interests include: the Early Republic, U.S. Cultural History, American Empire, The Pacific World, Hawaiian history and literature, and emergent historical methods shaped by linguistic and cultural language fluency in an indigenous language.

• Kendra Taira Field (2008-2009) - (Creek) was our fellow for 2008-2009. Kendra is writing her dissertation for a PhD in History at New York University, New York City. It is titled: "African American Migration From the Deep South to Indian Territory, 1870-1920."  As an undergraduate at Williams College, Kendra worked for three years with the Multicultural Center to help develop the Williams Community Building Program, a student -run organization that south to expand healthy discourse, especially of race and class within and beyond the campus community.

• Jenny Elizabeth Tone Pah-Hote (2007-2008) - (Kiowa) was our Fellow for 2007-2008.  Her dissertation "Envisioning Nationhood: Kiowa Expressive Culture, 1900-1950" is still a work in progress. Jenny is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  Her dissertation explores how the Kiowa have used expressive culture such as beadwork, silverwork, and painting in political ways in the early 20th century. It argues that expressive culture is one way that the Kiowa have asserted their nationhood and sovereignty.

• Judy Kertesz (2006-2007) - (Lumbee) was an Eastman Fellow for academic year 2006-2007. Judy is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University. Her dissertation titled "Skeletons in the American Attic: Curiosity, Science and the Appropriation of the American Indian Past" is under completion. Her main interests include: Colonial British North America and the Early Republic, U. S. cultural history, issues and representation; American Nationalism, Material Culture, African-American Studies, American Indian history and Tribal Sovereignty issues.

• Heidi Stark (2006-2007) - (Turtle Mountain Ojibwa) was one of our Eastman Fellows for academic year 2006-2007. We actually had two for this year, Judy Kertesz was the other one.  Heidi is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth campus, Department of American Indian Studies.

• Randy Akee (2004-2005) - (Native Hawaiian), is the Charles Eastman Fellow for 2004-05. He comes from Harvard University, where he is enrolled in the doctoral program on Political Economy and Government. He will be working on his dissertation, "Three Essays in Economic Development of Indigenous Peoples.

• Angelica Lawson (2003-2004) - (Northern Arapaho), was the Fellow in Residence for the 2003-2004 academic year. Angelica has completed her degree at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The title of her dissertation is: "Resistance and Resilience in the Work of Four Native American Authors." Ms. Lawson was also a visiting instructor at Dartmouth, and taught a course in NAS for the Fall, 2003 term: "American Indians on Film and Television." She is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Montana, Missoula.

• Audra Simpson (2002-2003) - (Mohawk), completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology from McGill University. She was the Charles Eastman Fellow from 2002-03. Audra was at Cornell University where she was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship. After teaching at Cornell University, Audra moved to Columbia University in 2008.

• Vera Palmer (2001-2002) - (Tuscarora/Iroquois), was our Eastman fellow for 2001-2002. She worked on her dissertation on the Iroquois Condolence ceremonies. Vera has remained at Dartmouth as visiting instructor. She is teaching Contemporary Native American Poetry and an introductory course in Native American Studies.

• Dian Million (2001-2002) - (Tanana Athabascan), came to Dartmouth from the University of California, Berkeley where she was doing a Ph.D. in Native American and Ethnic Studies. Her dissertation title is "Telling Secrets: Politics, Gender and Race in the Production of Aboriginal Sovereignty." Dian is now a faculty member at the University of Washington.

• Darren J. Ranco (1999-2000) - (Penobscot), completed his B.A. in Anthropology at Dartmoth College, 1993, his MS in Environmental Law at Vermont Law School in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at Harvard University in 2000. He was on the faculty at Dartmouth in our Native Studies Program and the Environmental Studies Program, from 2002-2008.

• Joseph P. Gone (1998-1999) - (Gros Ventre), received his Ph.D. from the Clinical and Community Psychology Doctoral Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation, approved in 2000, was "Affects and Its Disorders Among the Lakota Sioux." He is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Department of Psychology.

• Peggy J. Ackerberg (1997-1998) - (Citizen Potawatomi), from Harvard's Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Her dissertation: "Peau rouge, marches blancs: The Marketing of Native America in French Literature."   Peggy did not complete her dissertation, and is now employed in the private sector.

• Dennis (Dan) Runnels (1996-1997) - (Colville), Visiting Instructor of Spanish and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College, 1997-2008. His dissertation: "Guaman Poma: An Amerindian's Discursvie Strategies of Resistance in Post-Conquest Peru." Dan has not yet completed his dissertation. Nevertheless, he was hired by the Native American Studies Program to teach a number of courses on identity and biography. He is now retired.

• Kevin Connelly (1995-1996) - (Onondaga), Ph.D. in linguistics from Cornell University. His dissertation: "How to Capture the Moment: Aspect, Modality, and Tense in Onondaga Discourse." Kevin completed his dissertation and is now employed in the private sector.

• Jo Ann Woodsum (1994-1995) - (Cahuilla), University of California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation:  "The Cultural Construction of Zuni Women's Identity, 1870-1920"

• Christopher Jocks (1992-1993) - (Mohawk) was Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College from 1990-2002. His dissertation: "Relationship Structures in Longhouse Tradition at Kahnawa:ke" Professor Jocks was our very first Eastman Fellow. After completing his dissertation he was appointed to a joint assistant professorship in both NAS and Religion at Dartmouth, a position he held for eight years. Professor Jocks is now a visiting professor at Fort Lewis College and is doing consulting work in Colorado.