New fellowships will advance research on American Indian history and the West

Two new fellowship opportunities invite scholars and doctoral students living outside the Phoenix area to Arizona State University in support of their research exploring the diverse history of the West, its intersections with race and violence, and American Indian history.

Through a partnership between The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the ASU Library’s Labriola National American Indian Data Center, the two annual fellowships will provide researchers travel support and access to rare primary source materials and unique archival collections.

“The two research fellowships are timely due to ASU’s excellent reputation in American Indian history in the West that is well over half a century old and today’s racial violence in society,” said ASU Regents Professor Donald Fixico. 

The American Indian History of the West Research Fellowship seeks to support and advance scholarship on the rich and diverse history of the West that makes a meaningful contribution to the fields of American Indian history/studies, federal-Indian policies and indigenous relations with other peoples or the natural environment.

The Race and Ethnicity Fellowship is an intellectual response to America’s overwhelming history of violence, especially against people of color. The fellowship seeks to generate research that examines historic intersections of race and violence in the West, looking to the past as a way to understand the present and inform future relations.

“We are so pleased to partner with Dr. Fixico in hosting these fellowships, which offer opportunities to further open our Native American collections to new researchers,” said Lorrie McAllister, associate university librarian for collection services and analysis at the ASU Library. “We look forward to welcoming and supporting the inquiry and scholarship of these fellows during their visits.”

The Labriola National American Indian Data Center brings together the current and historical work of indigenous authors across a multitude of disciplines with a focus on language, government, education, tribal history, biography, religion and customs. The center features thousands of books, journals, Native Nation newspapers, photographs, oral histories and manuscript collections.

Applicants must be an established scholar or a PhD or postdoctoral student conducting critical research about American Indian or race and ethnic history of the West, especially nondominant historical narratives necessitating primary or rare secondary sources. Fellowship applications are due Jan. 31, 2020.