CXCS Newsletter Issue November 2019
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Greetings!
Welcome! The holidays are almost upon us! Only a few weeks away from the end of the fall semester. I hope your studies are going well. As always a reminder to our students that our faculty and staff are here to help you succeed. Please contact our office at (907) 474-1902 or email
uaf-cxcs@alaska.edu if you have any questions or concerns. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates and events.
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We are proud of our alumni and students!
Stay connected with the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies. Do you have an exciting career or family success story to share? We would love to feature you on our newsletter and highlight your accomplishments.
To share your story, email
uaf-cxcs@alaska.edu
with a paragraph of your accomplishments, your research, along with a photo.
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A Message from Department Chair Mike Koskey
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Hello everyone, Happy Halloween and Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope each of you are having a successful Fall 2019 semester. I would like to start this month with congratulations to Dr. Sharon Guenther Lind who received her PhD in Indigenous Studies this semester.
Sharon's dissertation is entitled "Definitions of Success for Alaska Native Corporations." Sharon had a diverse and interdisciplinary graduate advisory committee, and she continues her role as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Aleut Corporation. Her outstanding dissertation included a qualitative and quantitative analysis of many aspects of Alaska Native Corporations with a focus on her Aleut Corporation and its effectiveness in serving her people.
I'm sure that what is on most students' minds is the issue of the budget cuts that are affecting the University of Alaska system. As some of you have inquired by emails or phone calls, we are undergoing an expedited program review, along with many other programs at UAF. This is our fifth program review since 2013, and we've passed through the previous four without any proposals to discontinue our program, and with an overall support for us to continue to accept and provide services to students. The current program review should, like the previous, demonstrate the importance of the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies and its MA and PhD in Indigenous Studies, along with its Alaska Native Knowledge Network (ANKN), to the University of Alaska. For those of you who've had questions regarding reorganization and/or restructuring, we have been provided no additional information since the September newsletter. However, I am confident at this point that whatever changes we may have to face in the future, we'll continue as a department and with our MA and PhD degrees.
We are first and foremost committed to our students, and it is this service that motivates us to provide quality education for the purposes of serving our communities. And just as a reminder to all students, we are now in our tenth week of instruction for classes, meaning that there is only a little more than a month remaining in the semester, so please catch up in your classes if needed, and remember that all of us at CCS--staff and faculty--are here to provide service and support to all our graduate students. If you have any questions or need out-of-class assistance with your work, please don't hesitate to contact your instructor, your graduate committee chair, or any of the rest of us (contact information is on the CCS website:
https://uaf.edu/cxcs/).
Finally, for those of you who began their graduate studies in a spring semester (rather than a fall semester), please remember that your Annual Report of Graduate Committee (and a full committee meeting) is due to the Graduate School by December 15th, 2019.
Keep up your good and important work, everyone--the work you do as a part of your graduate degrees serves (y)our communities to improve the quality of life for all Peoples!
Mike
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National Advisory Council on Indian Education Update
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Photo courtesy of Dr.Theresa John
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It is a great honor to serve on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) a Presidential elected seat. President Barack Obama selected me to serve on NACIE Board in Spring 2010. I continue to maintain my seat as one of the 15 National Council members.
The NACIE is authorized by The U.S. Secretary of Education Charter of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The Council is governed by the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
Description of NACIE duties:
The Council will:
1. the United States Secretary of Education and Secretary of Interior concerning the funding and administration (including the development of regulations and administrative policies and practices) of any program, including any program established under TITLE VI, Part A of the ESEA, with respect to which the Secretary has jurisdiction and (a) that includes Indian children or adults as participants or (b) that may benefit Indian children or adults.
2. Make recommendations to the Secretary for filling the position of the Director of Indian Education whenever a vacancy occurs;
3. Submit to the Congress, not later than June 30 of each year, a report on the activities of the Council, including any recommendations that the Council considers appropriate for the improvement of Federal education programs that include Indian children or adults as participants or that may benefit Indian children and adults, and recommendations concerning the funding of any such program; and
4. Advise the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (Initiative), in accordance with the Executive Order 13592.
The NACIE had Face to Face meeting on September 11-12, 2019 in Washington D.C. The NACIE Report to the Congress of United States was submitted with the Boards recommendations, accessible via U.S. Department of Education website. The public is always invited to attend and participate during the meetings. Next NACIE meeting is scheduled for mid-February 2020.
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Do you need research funds? Apply today!
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Rebecca B. Kaliss
Indigenous Studies Research Award
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One of our Affiliated Faculty--Dr. Tony Kaliss, formerly of Iḷisaġvik College in Utqiaġvik--has generously donated funds to our department for graduate students' use for traveling for fieldwork or other related activities directly tied to their work on their PhDs or MAs. Named for his mother (who provided the finds in her will) Tony felt that this was a way to reciprocate in a way as others provided him the means to come to Alaska many years ago to conduct his own fieldwork. Tony is a long-time Alaska resident and continues to be available to serve on graduate advisory committees in our department. Here is the purpose of the Award (and please see Tony's bio below):
To provide support for graduate students enrolled in the Cross-Cultural Studies program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who are conducting research projects
whose findings are to be published and/or shared publicly concerning Alaska Native issues. Projects may include, but are not limited to dissertations, theses, and conference presentations. Expenditures from this fund may include, but are not limited to: travel and lodging costs in connection with getting to/from locations in which the research takes place, and conferences that are directly connected to the issues being researched. No more than $1,000 in total support shall be given to any student that meets the above-mentioned criteria.
If you are eligible and interested for this one-time opportunity, please submit a proposal with a description of your travel, predicted expenditures (and amount requested), and the date by which you would need these funds to Mike Koskey at
mskoskey@alaska.edu.
TONY KAILISS BIO
At this point in my life, I'm 76, it's time to share my life's experience by supporting students in the CCS Program in any way I can. I combine over 50 years experience in working on issues between Native and non-Native peoples with political activity from a Left point of view that goes back three generations in my family. While I have the academic degrees and experience I see myself as a community organizer so my goal is to seek practical solutions to real problems backed up by rigorous study and understanding.
I believe I can be helpful in these ways:
- act as a mentor to help students succeed in general or in regard to researching and understanding specific topics. Help in a deeper understanding of the dynamics of Native and non-Native interactions.
-how to research politically in regard to finding and understanding facts and viewpoints--especially concerning Native—non-Native history and issues
-serve on masters/doctoral dissertation committees. My goal here is that excellent research and in-depth interpretation is done without imposing my point of view or particular methodologies.
I am a believer in life-long education—only took me 40 years from BA to Ph.D. My Ph.D. is in American Studies (Univ. of Hawai'i) with emphasis on international indigenous issues. My dissertation compares Soviet/Russian and American government policies towards Native peoples on both sides of the Bering Strait. As part of my research I was a year in the Russian Far Northeast and then time on the North Slope and the Northwest Arctic areas.
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2020 Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley Indigenous Scholars Award
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To Order ANKN Books & Materials contact
Richard Hum at 907-474-5897
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Alaska Native Knowledge Network
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ANKN is located on the 5th floor of the Gruening Building, room 503F. Please contact Richard Hum at 907-474-5897 or email
rehum@alaska.edu
for any inquiries on books and posters.
For payment, please contact Crystal Frank at 907-474-1902 or email
cafrank@alaska.edu
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*New bookstore website coming soon!
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ANKN Monthly Book Feature
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A Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit
By A. Oscar Kawagley
Oscar Kawagley is a man of two worlds, walking the sometimes bewildering line between traditional Yupiaq culture and the Westernized Yupiaq life of today. In this study, Kawagley follows both memories of his Yupiaq life of today. In the study, Kawagley follows both memories of his Yupiaq grandmother, who raised him with the stories of the Bear Woman and respectful knowledge of the reciprocity of nature, and his own education in science as it is taught in Western schools. Kawagley is a man who hears the elders’ voices in Alaska, knows how to look for the weather and to use the land and its creatures with the most delicate care.
In a call to unite the two parts of his own and modern Yupiaq history, Kawagley proposes a way of teaching that incorporates all ways of knowing available in Yupiaq and Western science. He has traveled a long journey, but it ends where it began, in a fish camp in southwestern Alaska, a home for his heart, mind and spirit.
Contact the Alaska Native Knowledge Network at 907-474-5897 or email uaf-cxcs@alaska.edu
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Important Dates & Deadlines!
- 11/1/19 - Last day for student- and faculty-initiated withdrawals (W grade appears on academic transcript)
- 11/11/19 - Begin spring 2020 priority registration (UAF degree students)
- 11/13/19 - Brown Bag Lunch Series 12PM-1PM
- 11/25/19 - Begin spring 2020 open registration (all UAF, UAA and UAS students, including nondegree students)
- 11/27/19-12/1/19 - Thanksgiving break (no classes, most offices closed)
- 12/7/19 - Last day of instruction
- 12/11/19 - Brown Bag Lunch Series 12PM-1PM
- 12/18/19 - Deadline for faculty to post grades, noon
- 12/24/19-1/1/20 - Winter break (no classes, most offices closed; reopen Thursday, Jan. 2, at 8 a.m.)
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University of Alaska Fairbanks
Center for Cross-Cultural Studies
201 Eielson Building, UAF campus
PO Box 756730
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730
Phone: (907) 474-1902
Office Hours 8AM-5PM M-F
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