Newberry Summer Programs Bring YGSNA Members to Chicago

September 3, 2014

This summer two YGSNA members attended month-long seminars at the Newberry Library in Chicago, continuing long-standing partnerships developed by the Newberry, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Newberry Consortium on American Indian Studies (NCAIS).

In June, Ryan Hall (History) participated in the NEH seminar, “Bridging National Borders in North America.” Led by Professor Ben Johnson, this seminar brought together 14 faculty members and 2 graduate students whose work focused on the role of borders and borderlands in North American history. During the seminar, participants read works by a variety of authors who visited the seminar, including Alan Taylor, Rachel St. John, Gerry Cadava, Kelly Lytle-Hernandez, and Kornel Chang, and discussed strategies for assessing the rapid growth of borderlands history. Ryan continued developing concepts and methods applicable for his evolving research on the Blackfoot Confederacy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sharing insights from his dissertation’s new periodization and research into the borderlands history of the northern Plains.

In July, YGSNA graduate coordinator Tiffany Hale attended the summer NCAIS Graduate Student Seminar hosted by the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Guided by Professors Ellen Cushman and Rocío Quispe-Agnoli, this year’s program focused on the politics of writing and representation with regard to indigenous peoples and brought graduate students from NCAIS member institutions together. (photo)

Tiffany’s time in the archives led her to consider the power of gender in shaping media representations of late nineteenth century indigenous religious traditions. Linked to her recently completed dissertation proposal, this research culminated in a presentation at the NCAIS Graduate Student Conference, entitled “Syndicating the Crisis: Newspaper Journalism and the 1890 Ghost Dance.”

For more info click here