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NAS Grad Student Nicole Blalock offers some tips and tricks to simplify the little things.

7/21/2011

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Simplify Your Workflow: Automate the "Little Things" Reading, Research and Writing

BY: Nicole Blalock

If there is one piece of advice I could go back and give myself four years ago when I began my graduate student career, it would be: figure out a way to organize and manage all the things you are going to read, and do it now! The importance of having a system to keep track of all those books and journal articles that are going to be read while transforming into a scholar may not jump out as being of primary importance right now, but let me tell you, when it comes to writing that literature review and piecing together your bibliography at the end of your thesis, you are gonna wish you didn’t have to do it the old fashioned way. With the plethora of tools available to scholars, taking a week or two to test out whether or not they fit your workflow, while a bit time consuming, can end up saving you hassle later in your career. I didn’t get mine figured out until the point where I was composing my dissertation prospectus so it took several days to get everything set up with the backlog of articles and book chapters lurking around my computer. Once I did it though, I felt like writing from that point forward would be a breeze. (Okay, maybe that is being a little cliché and bit over optimistic, but I did feel a sense of manageability was brought to all the materials I had.)

My basic workflow revolves around two applications:

1.      Dropbox for syncing all my current class, paper, and project files (if you decide you want to try this out, signing up from this link will get you and I both some extra storage space for free)

2.      Mendeley for syncing all my citation information, reference notes, and automated “cite while you write”

Dropbox is a tool that gives you free online space (you start at 2 GB) that also syncs files to any device that you have the same account linked with. I have it on my desktop, laptop, and my iPhone. I keep a folder for Dropbox items on my desktop just like I used to for all my current projects. Every item saved into the folder gets automatically shared to my other devices. You can leave everything private, or you can share specific folders with project collaborators. And since it’s all backed up in your online folder, I know my files are safe if either of my computers crash.

Mendeley is similar. It has a desktop interface and an online interface that syncs together to keep all your academic citations up to date. You have 1 GB of free storage space where you can upload copies of your PDFs if you want as well before having to pay. Or, you can keep them all organized somewhere else and never pay anything!

What I do:

1.      Drag a PDF file from the downloads folder into Mendeley desktop (or, if like me you already have folders full of them, you can bulk drag-and-drop). Another option is to use the web importer button for more than 30 different sites to instantly import citations from places like Amazon, Google Books, EBSCO, JSTOR, SAGE, etc.

2.      Delete the original file if you used the drag-and-drop method above because the re-named file is already sorted into Dropbox. (More on this later.)

3.      Check the reference information for accuracy in Mendeley. The program automatically pulls a variety of meta-data and fills it in for you, but it isn’t always perfect. Make any changes needed, then click the “information is correct” button. Add your tags and sort it into any collection you need. After checking it this once, you never have to enter the information in again.

4.      In the notes tab, I fill in my notes while I read, highlight on the PDF in Mendeley, etc. For books from seminars I copy and paste in my book synopsis papers and then go back and insert additional notes after class discussions. If you take your laptop to class with Mendeley, you can add your notes automatically in the program to any citation.

5.      Use the Cite While You Write tool to automatically generate citations in a variety of formats in Word (also works in Open Office, Google Docs). At the end of your document, “insert bibliography” to instantly get a perfectly formatted References list that doesn’t require you to comb through the paper making sure you haven’t missed one.

One of the big keys to getting this all to work nicely is linking up Dropbox and Mendeley. The way to do this is with Mendeley’s tool “File Organizer”. The screenshot below is what it looks like on Mac, PC is slightly different but the tool is still there.

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I believe if you have a PC, the screen is under “Tools”. In the Mac version here, you find it under “Preferences”. Tell Mendeley to Organize your files into your References folder in Dropbox. Then, sort the files into subfolders (I like my files by author, but sort them however you think of it best). Finally, tell Mendeley to rename the file. I use Author-Year-Title format as shown here, with hyphens, but there are other options available in the drop down list.

Voila! Your “038534094538.pdf” is now “Meyer-1999-Native Hawaiian education Talking story with three Hawaiian educators.pdf”. And copy of it is filed in your Dropbox references folder as well along with all other articles by authors named Meyer.

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This nice little one-two combination was the clincher for me using these two programs in my workflow.

If you have other gadgets, you can also download Mendeley and Dropbox apps on your iPad or iPhone. You could use one of the many PDF reader tools to write and highlight notes on your iPad instead of doing it right at the computer. Or, you can email that citation information to your friends while standing in the hall before you forget. If you need to work from a computer that you don’t typically use, you can still log-in to both programs online and access everything.

Scrivener is another fantastic interface for creative types as you can collect a variety of media and notes together on one screen to begin your writing project or for visualizing different data sources all in one space for meta analysis. It’s a Mac only program though, so sorry for peaking your interest if you are a PC kind of person.

These are just a few of the tools available to streamline the way you write. Have fun with it – utilizing tools like this should make your process easier. Everyone is unique, so if something feels onerous, it probably isn’t the right tool for you (trust me, I tried EndNote three different times because everyone kept telling me I should). Get people’s advice, but experiment on your own and really think about whether or not you like the tools.

So go on, automate the little things.


Nicole Blalock is a mixed heritage scholar, interested in student experiences. She is currently a master's student in the Department of Native American Studies and a doctoral student in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis, with an emphasis in school organization and educational policy. Her research questions have her exploring a range of Native American education issues, from historical archive research on policy and resistance, student and scholar experiences in the academy, and quantitative work around specialized curriculum and educational achievement.
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UCD NAS Grad Student Cutcha Risling Baldy awarded the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

7/20/2011

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UCD Nas Grad Student Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) was awarded the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. The Ford Foundation Fellowship awards are offered at the Predoctoral, Dissertation and Postdoctoral levels.  Fellowships are awarded in a national competition. The fellowship is awarded for three years.

From the website:  Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Find out more about Cutcha on her website.
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Breath of Life 2011: My Language Lives by Melissa Leal (NAS Grad Student)

7/15/2011

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UCD NAS Grad Students Lori Laiwa and Melissa Leal attended the National Breath of Life Symposium in Washington DC June 12-26. There were only 40 seats available nationwide. The goal of the Breath of Life Institute is to help Native Americans involved in language revitalization find and make use of materials on their languages that are in the National Anthropological Archives and Library of Congres. UCD Grad Student Melissa Leal shares her experience at the Institute.
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Ene lepa Melissa Leal. Ene Esselen-k.  Nish welel cha’a.  My name is Melissa Leal.  I am Esselen. My language lives.  These are important words for me to write but also for others to read.  Esselen is a language and a people.  Both have been deemed “extinct” by anthropologists, in fact, Esselen was probably the first language to be deemed “extinct” in California.  Esselen is an isolate, meaning it isn’t related to any other language and it doesn’t fit in any language group.  In indigenous linguistic circles we like to say that the language is not extinct but is just “sleeping” and it is my goal to wake it up. 

I think that the Breath of Life Archival Institute of 2011, held in Washington D.C has been a great rooster crow for the sun rising in Esselen country.  Breath of Life is definitely a working conference.  Each participant is paired with a mentor who is a linguist.  The linguist that I worked with was Jim Bauman and he was awesome. He was very open and willing to be creative with working on the language.  Esselen doesn’t have any speakers or audio recordings. Therefore, creativity and intuitiveness is important when working on the language.  Every day the participants and linguists met at the National Museum of the American Indian from 8:30 am until 1:00 pm for lectures/workshops, at which point we loaded on to buses to go to places like the Library of Congress or National Anthropological Archives until 5:00 pm.  Then we headed back to the dorms to do our homework.  Although everyone was excited to be finding information and being able to work on their language, we were all exhausted.  This was the schedule for two weeks. 

Unfortunately, none of the archives had any new information or material that was Esselen but three great things came out of the Breath of Life conference for me. 1.  My linguist and I were able to translate a sentence that had never been done before (correctly). 2. My linguist introduced me to a great database and input all of the Esselen words into it.  Now Esselen has a database and I can add and change it quickly and easily. 3. My final project included writing and then reciting a rap in Esselen which was the first for Breath of Life (and my first time rapping in public!)  Breath of Life left me with great ideas for future opportunities and contacts with other “language people” all over the United States. 

Previously: Two UCD NAS Grad Students are on their way to Washington DC for the Breath of Life Archival Institute.

Melissa Leal  is a descendant of Ohlone and Esselen peoples of Monterey, California. She received her BA from CSU, Sacramento in Ethnic Studies and is currently C.Phil in Native American Studies. Her research includes the reciprocal relationship between Hip Hop Culture and Indigenous Communities. She is also interested in Performance Studies, Popular Culture, and the intersectionalities of descendants of Africa and Indigenous Americans. Melissa also works on revitalizing the Esselen language. She is a lifetime resident of Sacramento County and teaches dance, jewelry making, and classes on revitalizing indigenous languages. Learn more about her here.
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We are always updating! Check out our Current Students update

7/12/2011

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Abel Ruiz

Abel Ruiz is originally from the community of Tlachichila, Zacatecas, Mexico and he treats Santa Ana, Califas, as his second home. His research interests include (but are not limited to): the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) for indigenous empowerment, indigenous countermapping, decolonization theory, and NAGPRA.

Robin Thomas

Robin Thomas is a Ph.D. candidate in Native American Studies. She lives in Ukiah, California, which is on traditional lands of Pomo peoples. Her dissertation focus is on Native American student labor at Sherman Institute, as well as the work of families, tribes and communities in reclaiming students from the boarding schools during the first half of the twentieth century. Her research interests include community labor and self-determination; practical approaches to decolonization, repatriation and protecting sacred sites; and land reclamation for Native peoples. She received her M.A. in history from Sonoma State University in 2005.
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Learn more about the NAS Graduate Student Association

7/8/2011

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Our elected reps for this year (so far) are: Angel Hinzo and Cutcha Risling Baldy. There will be four reps total.

The Native American Studies Graduate Student Association is an organization of all NAS graduate students which provides resources, support and representation for graduate students in the department. Elected Graduate Student Representatives serve as the lead organizers and representatives or advocates for the NAS graduate student community.

Duties of Graduate Student Representatives:
  • Represent and advocate for Grad Students at Faculty meetings
  • Maintain Smartsite & Blog
  • Set up Graduate Student Meetings
  • Disperse information to Graduate Students and Faculty (when appropriate)
  • Attend monthly Graduate Student Association meetings
  • Forward information from the Graduate Student Association to NAS Grads
  • Inform Grad Students of resources/ info that seems appropriate
  • Plan and organize events throughout the quarter
  • Plan and organize Faculty/Student meetings (each quarter)
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    Welcome to the Davis Native American Studies Graduate Student Blog. This blog was started as a place to update on all of the amazing work that is being done by the Graduate Students in the UC Davis Native American Studies Department. The Graduate Program in Native American Studies was approved in 1998, making UC Davis only the second university in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in Native American Studies. In Fall 1999, the Department welcomed its first group of students enrolled in the M.A. and Ph.D. Programs in Native American Studies.

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