EWCA Summer Travel Grant Report
by
Anjali Nath
EWC Degree Fellow

(EWC Graduate Student Fellow Anjali Nath)

To the EWCA Summer Travel Grant Committee,

On May 19-21, 2011, I had the pleasure of attending the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Conference hosted by the Department of Native American Studies at UC Davis and held in Sacramento, California. While there, I was able to present a research paper titled “Indigenizing Contemporary Transnational Feminist Pedagogies in the U.S. Academy” encompassing research I am currently doing for my dissertation.

Presenting my research was extremely rewarding, particularly considering that there were multiple people in my audience who were very familiar with the theoretical work I was engaging. As simplistic as that may seem, it is rare for me to encounter scholars face-to-face who have read some of the work I am analyzing. The Ph.D. students and professors I am referencing were extremely interested in my work, and we were able to have some very exciting discussions about similarities in the work we are currently producing. Needless to say, their research was extremely generative for me to consider as well.

Additionally, I can easily say that the caliber of papers I listened to were of the highest quality collectively that I have ever seen at an academic conference, graduate or otherwise. To say that I left this event intellectually inspired would be a vast understatement. I am extremely grateful for having the opportunity through EWCA summer funding to participate in such electrifying collective discourse comprised of intelligent and committed scholars from tribal colleges and universities throughout the nation and broader international community.

Sincerely,

Anjali L. Nath
Graduate Degree Fellow
East-West Center
Department of Political Science
President, Graduate Student Organization
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Links:

• Read more reports from the Travel Grant Series
• Learn more about the student services from the EWC Associates Office