Summer Institute
Native American and Indigenous Studies Summer Institute (NAIS-SI)
Held July 11 - August 5, 2022 (virtually)
The Native American and Indigenous Studies Summer Institute (NAIS-SI) is a professionalization program for graduate students in The University of Texas system working within or across the international, interdisciplinary arenas of Indigenous studies. NAIS-SI activities articulate indigeneity in the double sense of describing indigeneity as an intellectual project and connecting it to key theoretical, historical and political concerns in and beyond the academy. Together we generate a set of epistemological, methodological, and professional strategies for the successful completion and dissemination of creative research projects in Indigenous studies that may not always be legible to conventional academic disciplines. Additionally, we strengthen existing relations among communities, peoples, universities, and scholars.
Announcing the Summer 2022 Native American and Indigenous Studies Summer Institute (NAIS-SI) Fellows
We are pleased to announce the inaugural cohort of graduate student Fellows for the Summer 2022 Native American and Indigenous Studies Summer Institute (NAIS-SI), a professionalization program for graduate students in The University of Texas system working within or across the international, interdisciplinary arenas of Indigenous studies.
Jessica Sánchez Flores
Jessica Sánchez Flores is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Jessica is from Mexico and of Nahua descent. She was born and raised in a small town near Iguala, Guerrero and migrated to Santa Ana, California at the age of 10. Her scholarly interests are broadly concerned with Indigenous self-representations, Nahua studies, settler colonialism, Native feminisms. Her dissertation focuses on the ways Nahuatl, Zapotec, and Maya women challenge pre-conceived notions of Indigeneity and negotiate with state sponsored programs’ expectations to support their own agendas and promote their own narratives and representations of Indigenous womanhood in present day Mexico. Jessica’s faculty mentor is Dr. Yolanda Leyva from The University of Texas at El Paso.
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Ricardo (Rick) Quezada
Ricardo (Rick) Quezada is a tribal member at Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, and M.A. student (History) at The University of Texas at El Paso. He is currently the Director of Cultural Preservation where he works to preserve the culture, history, and language of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. As a Tigua language speaker, he also teaches the Tigua language to tribal members. One of his many skills includes traditional drum making. Rick holds a B.A. in Anthropology, and a minor in Linguistics, from The University of Texas at El Paso. Rick’s faculty mentor is Dr. Rebecca Reid from the University of Texas at El Paso.
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Alhelí Harvey
Alhelí Harvey is a graduate student in the Department of Mexican-American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research uses architectural history, visual, and literary media as primary sources for understanding place-making in the Americas, with particular attention to New Mexico. She was raised going back and forth between Mexico City and southern New Mexico, two very different but related regions that made a deep impact on her relationship with place-based knowledge. Ahelí’s faculty mentor is Dr. Erika Bsumek from The University of Texas at Austin.
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Cheyanne Escamilla Lozano
Cheyanne Escamilla Lozano is Tl’izi lani (Many Goats) Clan from the Navajo Nation and Mexican American, and a MFA student in Creative Writing at The University of Texas at El Paso. She is one of the founding members of the student organization ARISE (Academic Revival of Indigenous Studies and Education). Cheyanne is proud of her work as an activist for various social justice causes and hopes to earn her degree and one day teach at a tribal-affiliated college to teach others the joy that writing has brought into her life. Cheyanne’s faculty mentor is Dr. Luis Cárcamo-Huechante from The University of Texas at Austin.
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Freddy Cabral
Freddy Cabral, originally from El Paso, Texas, is a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at El Paso. He earned my B.A. (2017) and M.A. (2020) in history from the University of Texas at El Paso. He belongs to the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, an Indigenous community in Texas. His research explores a new insight never addressed before in the Lipan Apache historiography, exploring how the non-reservation Lipan Apache has upheld and continues to uphold their identity over the decades. His research also examines how white supremacy shapes Texas politics, culture, and society, which led to countless acts of genocide against Native population in Texas, including his people. Freddy’s faculty mentor is Dr. Paul Conrad from The University of Texas at Arlington.
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Marial Quezada
Marial Quezada is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Cultural Studies in Education program at The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to UT, she worked alongside Indigenous communities in human rights campaigning and developed and facilitated curriculum with social workers, students, and teachers across Abiayala and in Spain. Marial’s research interests include critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies, language reclamation, identity, and activism. She currently works with the Indigenous Cultures Institute on developing a local teacher training program based on an Indigenous pedagogy. Marial earned her master's degree in human rights studies with a concentration in Indigenous Peoples' rights and education and her bachelor’s degree in Hispanic studies, both from Columbia University. Marial’s faculty mentor is Dr. Marissa Muñoz from The University of Texas at El Paso.
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Jermani Ojeda-Ludena
Jermani Ojeda-Ludena is a Quechua Indigenous scholar and member of a Quechua community, Puca Puca, in the region of Apurimac, Peru. Currently he is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Texas at Austin. His research is on Indigenous media, particularly Quechua people broadcasting through radio stations in the Andes of Peru. He earned his BA degree in journalism at the Public University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco City, Peru. He has obtained two MA degrees, one in Public Policy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and another in Iberian and Latin American Literatures, Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. Jermani’s faculty mentor is Dr. Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar from The University of Texas at Austin.
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Fior Daliso García Lara
Fior Daliso García Lara is a Candidate in the Ph.D. Borderlands History Program at The University of Texas at El Paso. Fior was born and raised in Merida, Yucatan. She received an M.A degree in Cultural Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo with her dissertation “The Importance of the Darien Indigenous Peoples for Illegal Trade during the First Half of the Eighteenth Century.” Her current research interests are Cross-border dynamics, colonial constructions of the frontiers, and their impact on indigenous communities and their environments. She currently researches the colonial history of the Hispanic border, more precisely in the lands inhabited by 18th-century Maya and Choctaw. Fior’s faculty mentor is Dr. Circe Sturm from The University of Texas at Austin.
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