The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders invite applications for the 2011 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 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 and ending July 31. 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/or Indigenous Studies.

The Roe Cloud Fellowship will provide support comparable to that for Yale University graduate students, including an annual stipend, full access to Yale facilities and services, and health care coverage. The fellow will have office space in the Lamar Center and 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, 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.

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, and the Yale Group for the Study of Native America (YGSNA), which was formed in late 2003 to bring together the intellectual community at Yale working in the area of Native American Studies. 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 in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The fellow will be responsible for making a formal presentation of the project near the conclusion of the academic year, an event open to all interested members of the campus community.

Applications must include a CV, the dissertation prospectus, a writing sample of approximately 25 pages, a letter describing plans to complete the dissertation during the fellowship period, as well as three letters of recommendation, sent under separate cover, including one from the candidate's dissertation advisor. For further information and to find out when applications are being accepted, write to: RoeCloud.Fellowship@yale.edu. All materials must be sent to:

Henry Roe Cloud Fellowship Committee
Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders
Yale University
PO Box 208201
New Haven, CT 06520-8201

Revised: March 7, 2011

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