"SIGI gave me the focus, knowledge, and confidence to push through my PhD program at a rate I couldn't have anticipated"
Photo: Leanne Day
Two participants in last year’s Summer Institute in Global Indigeneities (SIGI) have landed prestigious fellowships that they credit, in part, to the inaugural institute at the UW.
Leanne Day, UW doctoral student in English, received a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University, where she will teach Asian American literature while revising her dissertation into a book manuscript. In June 2017 she will defend her dissertation, “Empire’s Imagination: Race, Settler Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Hawaii’s 'Local' Narratives.”
Dianne Baumann, a UW doctoral student in Anthropology, received a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation that provides three years of full funding while she continues her dissertation work.
Both students thank the summer institute, which was held for the first time in June 2016 to gather graduate students and faculty from across universities to focus on the intellectual and institutional challenges of articulating Indigenous studies.
“SIGI gave me the focus, knowledge, and confidence to push through my PhD program at a rate I couldn't have anticipated,” Dianne said. “I honestly believe the one week spent in SIGI is the main reason I had the ability to write a winning NSF application and complete my research competency paper in fulfillment of my master’s degree.”
The institute is organized by Tony Lucero (Jackson School of International Studies), Chadwick Allen (English and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement), Hokulani Aikau (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa), and Vicente Diaz (University of Minnesota). It will meet again at the UW in June 2017 with support from the Simpson Center, the Office of Global Affairs, the Graduate School, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, the Washington Institute for the Study of Inequality and Race (WISIR), and the wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ - Intellectual House Academic Advisory Programming Committee.
Congratulations, Dianne and Leanne!