In 1996, two Kenyan scholars were awarded Fulbright Scholarships — honors the U.S. Department of State grants to promising young academics worldwide. Fred Muyia Nafukho, who joined the 91̽»¨ earlier this year as the vice provost for academic personnel, vividly remembers the day he was called to the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.
Picture a series of uniform mounds of earth, each about 6-feet high. Enclosing 50 acres, the mounds form an octagon that is connected to a circle. This is The Octagon Earthworks, located in central Ohio, and it’s one of thousands of Indigenous mounds across the eastern half of North America. Chadwick Allen is a professor of English and American Indian studies at the 91̽»¨, and he studies Native American earthworks and cultural erasure. The Octagon Earthworks,…
Black womanhood and corporate branding, Indigenous mound building and volunteering for the Peace Corps are among the subjects of recent and upcoming books by 91̽»¨ faculty.
The 91̽»¨Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies has received a $1.8 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which will fund four years of work at the 91̽»¨around Native student support, academics, research and cultural programs.
As the discipline of American Indian Studies approaches its 50th year at the 91̽»¨, a new research center is in the works: the Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, which is supported by multiple colleges and schools.
Like post-secondary schools across the country, the 91̽»¨ has struggled to attract and retain a talented, diverse faculty. But efforts that have been quietly underway for a few years are starting to pay off, attracting top-level candidates to the 91̽»¨even over schools that are able to offer bigger salaries and more perks. That work involves not simply convincing excellent candidates to come to the UW, but creating a supportive and inclusive environment that prompts them to stay,…