Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Fellowship Announced for 2018-19

Portrait of Henry Roe Cloud, circa 1910
March 2, 2018

The Yale Group for the Study of Native America (YGSNA) invites applications for the 2018 Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellowship in American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Since 2010, the Roe Cloud Fellowship has helped to develop American Indian Studies at Yale 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 as “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, 2018, and ending July 31, 2019.  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 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 $31,000, full access to Yale facilities and services, and health care coverage. The fellow will work in close affiliation with the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program and will 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 Momaday, 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.

The Roe Cloud Fellow will also have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the recently established Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). The Center supports research and teaching on race, indigenous studies, and migration by advancing interdisciplinary research and teaching on these topics at Yale; connecting faculty members, students, existing research efforts, administrative units, and relevant courses of study in new and innovative ways; and promoting collaborations between members of the Yale Community and beyond, through partnerships with local, national, and international institutions, organizations, and individuals. Other opportunities include activities at the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders; the Native American Cultural Center; as well as the YGSNA working group. Formed in 2003 to bring together the intellectual community at Yale working in the area of Native American Studies, YGSNA organizes bi-monthly workshops throughout the academic year as well as related academic events on campus. (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 YGSNA presentation of the project during the academic year, an event open to all interested members of the campus community. 

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

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 April 15, 2018. For further information, write to: RoeCloud.Fellowship@yale.edu.

APPLY HERE