1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium
Engaging the Indigenous Americas
Friday April 13, 2012

A Note from our Symposium Chairs:

The 1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium was a tremendous success! In addition to the 5 moderators, 3 faculty participants, and 19 presenters, over 40 audience members from various departments across campus joined in the dialogues and conversations that took place in the Risling Room of Hart Hall.

For our inaugural year, the Native American Graduate Student Association transformed the Risling Room into a colorful display of student artwork, crafts, and presentations. Entering the room, attendees were greeted with California Indian basket weavings, Diné looms and weavings, and 6 large pieces of Alicia María Siu’s canvas paintings, one of which was Iyat Pahtli (Tabacco Medicine), the symposium’s image for this years theme “Engaging the Indigenous Americas.”

Over the following eight hours, we listened, dialogued, ate, and began the steps of developing interdisciplinary communities. In addition to the stellar presentations from all participants and NAS faculty, moderators and audience members engaged with keen observations, questions, and suggestions that promoted much needed conversations on issues such as hemispheric philosophies, Native American literatures, visual sovereignty, approaches to Native histories, Indigenous epistemologies, and accountabilities to community.

Associate Professor Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie opened the space with a blessing reminding us of the footprints that we follow as scholars of Native American Studies. While the path through academia may be filled with obstacles, departments like NAS and events like our Graduate Student Symposium are helping to prepare us with tools to face the challenges and enjoy the travels.

Dr. Martha Macri’s keynote talk allowed for personal and professional insight to the hemispheric, interdisciplinary, and multi-lingual philosophies of the UC Davis Native American Studies Department. The day-long event ended with NAS student presentations of creative work, hosted by Dr. Inés Hernández-Avila who opened the session with a song, encapsulating the title of the session: “An evening of flower and song,” and closed the session with a reading for her mother. During the session, Alicia María Siu offered a keynote address about the artwork displayed throughout the day. NAS graduate students followed, highlighting their own creative activities such as California Indian basket weaving, Diné rug weavings, poetry, blog writing, and photography displays, reminding us that art is another facet of critical inquiry, knowledge, theory, and praxis. After the symposium we left the Risling Room encouraged, not only because of the positive turn out but more importantly, because of the sense of community on the Davis campus.

The work presented throughout the day was truly inspiring and reflected the solid investigations coming from UC Davis graduate students who critically engage Indigenous communities and ways of knowing. We are grateful to everyone who contributed in some form to the success of this event and look forward to next year’s symposium.

Archives of the day’s event will be available in the near future; so don’t forget to check back in with our symposium page.

Thank you from the symposium committee co chairs – Patricia Killelea and Christine M. Willie

A special thanks to all of our sponsors:
Department of Native American Studies
College of Letters and Sciences: Division of Arts & Cultural Studies
Graduate Student Association
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center
Native American Studies Graduate Student Association
Office of Graduate Studies
Student Recruitment and Retention Center
UC Davis Native American Faculty & Staff Association
Women’s Resources and Research Center
Thank you once again from the Native American Graduate Student Symposium Committee Co-Chairs - Patricia Killelea and Christine M. Willie
"Iyat Pahtli (Tobacco Medicine)"
Image is copyright of artist Alicia Maria Siu

Newly Posted:

 Schedule of Presentations! Check out the amazing presentations we have set for the symposium!
2012 Symposium Schedule.pdf
File Size: 323 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
_Call for Papers (2012) - Deadline for submission has passed please join us on Friday April 13 for the Symposium!
Symposium Submission Form 2012.doc
File Size: 22 kb
File Type: doc
Download File
call_for_papers.pdf
File Size: 315 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Sponsors

NAS Graduate Student Association
Student Recruitment and Retention Center
UC Davis Graduate Student Association

Co-Chairs

Patricia Killelea (NAS)
Christine M. Willie (NAS)

Committee
Cutcha Risling-Baldy (NAS)
Brook Colley (NAS)
Angel Hinzo (NAS)
Ryan Tripp (HIS)
2012 Symposium Schedule.pdf
File Size: 322 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium
Engaging the Indigenous Americas
Friday April 13, 2012

Co-Sponsored by the Department of Native American Studies

We are pleased to announce the 1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium, to be held on the UC Davis campus on Friday, April 13th, 2012. This year’s theme is “Engaging the Indigenous Americas." In our inaugural year we had submissions from Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Community Development, English, History, Native American Studies, and University Writing Program. We hope that you will be pleased to participate in what we believe will be a unique and intellectually rigorous conference.

Symposium Schedule
You can view the symposium schedule below or download from the file above. Check out these amazing presentations! Click on the session title to view ABSTRACTS.

9:00 – 9:45
Welcoming Session
  • Opening Blessing: Associate Professor Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie
  • Opening Remarks: Patricia Killelea and Christine M. Willie

10:00-11:00
Session 1: The Politics of Space and Place

Moderator:   Cassandra Belson - Department of Community Development
  • Ryan Tripp -- History Department -- “Sontimoonk: Narragansett Tribal Governance, 1676-1723”
  • Melissa Leal (Esselen/Ohlone) – Native American Studies – “Employing Alalu to Connect the Hub and the Deejay”
  • Vanessa Esquivido (Nor Rel Muk Wintu) – Native American Studies – “Repatriating Land: Cultural Sovereignty within California Tribes”

11:15-12:15
Session 2: Bodies and Embodiment: Incarcerations, Identities, and Erotics

Moderator:    Tania Lizarazo - Department of Spanish & Portuguese
  • Angel M. Hinzo (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) – Native American Studies – “A Critical Look at Canada’s Indian Act: Interconnecting First Nation Gender and Politics”
  • Stephanie Lumsden (Hupa) – Native American Studies – “Developing Prisons”
  • Patricia Killelea – Native American Studies – “Wild Rice & Sticky Syrup: Uses of the Erotic in the Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm”

12:30-1:30
Keynote Luncheon: Professor Martha Macri

1:45-3:00 
Session 3: Visions and Revisions: Reclaiming the Past, Rewriting the Future

Moderator:   Danielle Shaw - Department of English
  • D Dayton – Comparative Literature – “Translation and Indigenous Poetics: A Comparison of the Poetry of Luci Tapahonso and Aku Wuwu”
  • Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hoopa/Yurok/Karuk) – Native American Studies – “A Picture Perfect Indian: Re-Writing Edward Curtis’s Legacy through Hupa Woman 1923 or Mary Baldy Socktish”
  • Bayu Kristianto – Native American Studies – “The Business of Fancydancing: Visual Sovereignty and the Double-Edged Consciousness”
  • José Ragas – History – “Visualizing the Andean Modernity: Indigenous Migrants and Racial Perceptions in Postcolonial Peru (1850-1980)”

3:15-4:30
Session 4: The Shape of Change: Historical Narratives of Transition

Moderator:   James D. Sarmento (Shasta) - Department of Native American Studies
  • Matthew Casey – History – “The Spirit of Development: Pentecostal Missionaries and Indígenas in Early 20th Century Peru”
  • Jason L. Edmonds – Anthropology, Evolutionary Wing – “The Dynamics of Cultural Change in Western Great Basin Prehistory” 
  • Erin Hendel – English – “Figures of Indigenous Nationalism in Martin R. Dalany’s Blake” 
  • Douglas Worley (Navajo/Mescalero Apache)  - Department of Native American Studies -
    "Native American Education: Contention over Space and Time"

4:45-6:15 
Session 5: Beyond Theory: Colonialism and Indigenous Knowledge

Moderator:   Elisa Oceguera - Cultural Studies
  • Silvia Soto – Native American Studies – “Mayanism: The resurgence of indigenous intellectualism in Guatemala in the work of Victor Montejo”
  • Rosalba Lopez-Ramirez – Community Development – “Lady 9 Grass: Transcending Time and Space a Nuu Dzavui Reflective Perspective: A Revolutionary Potential?”
  • Christine M. Willie (Navajo) – Native American Studies – "Diné Butchering in Ádahooníłígíí and Leading the Way: Who Lives and How?"
  • Whitney Jane Larratt-Smith – Anthropology –  “Expanding Universalisms: The Sarayaku Kichwa in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights"

6:30-7:30

An Evening of Flower and Song: Creative Hour and Reception
  • Closing Remarks and Honors: Patricia Killelea and Christine M. Willie
  • Creative Hour Host: Professor Inés Hernández-Avila
  • Keynote Artist Talk: Alicia Maria Siu
  • Featuring:   Cutcha Risling Baldy, Stephanie Lumsden, Vanessa Esquivido, Christine M. Willie, Bayu Kristianto, and Melissa Leal.

Please address questions or concerns to Symposium Coordinators Christine M. Willie and Patricia Killelea at NASGradSymposium@gmail.com

About the Artist

Alicia is a Nahuat-Pipil Native artist/muralist from Cuscatlan (El Salvador).  Her paintings and murals can be found in public spaces, in Native Communities and private collections throughout the continent.  She holds a Masters in Native American Studies.  Visit her website for more information.