CU Launches CNAIS!

What's the history of CNAIS? CU had long boasted some premier faculty in the field of Native American and Indigenous Studies. There had been a long-running faculty research series that featured guests and CU faculty that are experts in their NAIS fields. CNAIS was launched in 2014 with wide-spread support from across campus including the Office of the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor for Research, the Graduate School,  the College of Arts & Sciences and Faculty Affairs.

 

 

The University of Colorado Boulder has hosted some of the most impressive Native American scholars and artists, including Vine Deloria, Jr., historian, activist and author of Custer Died for Your Sins, poet Joy Harjo, novelist Linda Hogan, biologist and wildlife tracking expert Jim Halfpenny and anthropologist D’Arcy McNickle. 

Now, the campus has joined the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Minnesota and many other institutions in creating a Native American and indigenous studies program.

“We’ve had amazing people here at CU, very impressive academic figures, but we didn’t seem to have the right confluence of energies until now,” says Penelope Kelsey, associate professor of English and Director of the new Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies.

Read Clay Evans full article from CU's Arts & Sciences Magazine Archives: Indigenous Studies Program is Launching at CU!