American Indian Studies Dissertation Writing Fellowship

January 17, 2014
American Indian Studies Dissertation Writing Fellowship
Yale University 
2014-2015

The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders and the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program invite applications for the 5th Annual Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellowship in American Indian and Indigenous Studies. The Roe Cloud Fellowship is intended to develop American Indian Studies at Yale and by extension throughout the academy by facilitating the completion of the doctorate by scholars working on pressing issues related to the American Indian experience. Scholars working on topics in Indigenous Studies that relate to the study of North American Indians are also encouraged to apply.

The Henry Roe Cloud Fellowship honors the legacy of Henry Roe Cloud, a member of the Winnebago Nation of Nebraska and graduate of Yale College, 1910.  A tireless critic of federal Indian assimilation programs and a proponent of increased educational opportunities for American Indians, Roe Cloud transformed American Indian higher education through his leadership of the Society of American Indians, his founding of the American Indian Institute, and as co-author of “The Problem of Indian Administration,” commonly known ast the Meriam Report, an extensive survey made at the request of Secretary of the Interior that detailed the appalling failures of federal Indian policy in the early twentieth century.  This survey, presented to Congress in 1928, helped to set in motion many of the subsequent reforms of the Indian New Deal.

The Fellowship will support a graduate scholar in any doctoral field for the academic year, beginning August 1, 2014 and ending July 31, 2015.  Graduate students working towards careers in higher education who have completed all doctoral requirements but the dissertation are invited to apply.  The expectation is that the dissertation will be completed during the fellowship year.  The criteria for selection will be based solely on an assessment of the quality of the candidate’s work and the project’s overall significance for the study of American Indian and Indigenous Studies.

The Roe Cloud Fellowship will provide support comparable to that for Yale University graduate students, including an annual stipend of $27,300, full access to Yale facilities and services, and individual health care coverage. The fellow will work in close affiliation with the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Postdoctoral Program and have access to Yale’s exceptional research libraries. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, in addition to its premier collection of Western Americana, also holds the papers of many important American Indian writers, including Joseph Bruchac, Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momday, Vine Deloria, Jr., Gerald Vizenor, and James Welch, as well as those of important policy makers such as Felix Cohen and Richard Henry Pratt. Manuscripts and Archives at Sterling Memorial Library holds the papers of John Collier and Henry Roe Cloud, while the Lewis Walpole Library hosts the Yale Indian Papers Project, which provides comprehensive primary sources written for, by, and about New England Indians. For an overview of American Indian studies resources as Yale, please visit the internet portal: http://aisresources.commons.yale.edu/

The Roe Cloud Fellow will also have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders, the Native American Cultural Center, the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program, and the Yale Group for the Study of Native America (YGSNA), which was formed in 2003 to bring together the intellectual community at Yale working in the area of Native American Studies. (http://ygsna.sites.yale.edu) Yale student, staff, and faculty members are also increasingly active in regional and national Indian Studies networks. Additionally, the state and federally-recognized Indian Nations of Connecticut maintain museums, archives, and research centers, and host community events that draw regional, national, as well as international visitors.

Each fellow will be mentored by a professor drawn from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and will be responsible for making a formal presentation of the project during the academic year, an event open to all interested members of the campus community. Applications must include a c.v., the dissertation prospectus, a writing sample of approximately 25 pages drawn from the dissertation, a cover letter describing plans to complete the dissertation during the fellowship period, as well as three letters of recommendation, including one from the candidate’s dissertation advisor. The application deadline is March 21, 2014.For further information write to: RoeCloud.Fellowship@yale.edu.

To apply for this position click here.