2026 NCAIS Graduate Student Conference

Chair: Tarren Andrews, Yale University

Julia Kopesky, University of Chicago

Rabbit Again: Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Literary Variations on a Traditional Oral Theme

Josephine Lee, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Untitled

Nevaeh Ramon, Michigan State University

Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Experience into Memory Institutions

Miranda C. Washinawatok, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Stone as Teacher, Kin as Craft: Revitalizing Indigenous Knowledge Through Carving

Chair: Rose Miron, Newberry Library 

Torye Banura, Michigan State University 

Mapping the Field: Indigenous Methodologies in K–12 Leadership Scholarship 

Chris Getowicz, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign 

Redirecting and Reflecting on the Purpose of Knowledge and Higher Education: Roger Buffalohead and American Indian Studies at Minnesota, 1968-1974 

Mary Smith, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign 

Matrilineal Stories as Mathematics Pedagogy: Remembering Diné Women's Knowledges 

Kemeyawi Wahpepah, Harvard University 

“It should be taught in a way that’s not celebrated”: Native & Indigenous Encounters with Commemorative Pedagogy in US Schools 

Chair: Renata Ryan Burchfield, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

Bobbie Benavidez, Northwestern University 

Yucatec Maya Ecological Knowledge and Metabolic Disease Risk 

Hailey Hamilton, University of Nevada – Las Vegas 

Untitled 

Seratha Largie and Tess Abrahamson-Richards, University of Washington 

Centering Indigenous Theories of Sovereignty in Applied Health Sciences and Policy Scholarship 

Briki Cajandig, University of California - Davis 

Listening as Desire: An Epistemic Framework of Refusal and Indigenous Resurgence 

Chair: Josh Reid, University of Washington 

Syd González, Northwestern University 

Yearning & Futurity: Danza Azteca, the Homeland, and Latine Identity 

John Mollet, Yale University 

Across the Pacific: Hanoi, Washington, and the Politics of Indigenous Solidarity in the 1970s 

Jessica Simmons, Oklahoma State University 

Mutual Influences: Indigenous South Dakota and the Philippines, 1898-1941 

Molly Jean Adams, Oklahoma State University 

Training with Seaman Lewis: Highlighting the Service of Native Americans within the U.S. Women’s Naval Reserve Unit During World War II 

Chair: TBD

KJ LeFave, University of Oklahoma 

“A Pictographic Path”: GIS Mapping and Cultural Trends of Ojibwe Socioeconomics ca. 1818-1884 

Nara Narimanova, University of Alberta 

Crimean Tatar Toponymy and Colonization 

Lopaka O’Connor, University of Michigan 

Tangled Branches, Broken Roots: Genealogy as Property and Gendered (Dis)Placement Across Hawai‘i’s Seas and Islands, c. 1000-1860 CE 

Kabl Wilkerson, Harvard University 

Running & Chasing: A Meditation on Bodwéwadmi Onomastics and Meaning 

Chair: Kristin Arola, Michigan State University 

Keala Aronowitz, University of Washington 

The Role of Implementation Architecture in the Preservation of the Federal Indian Boarding School System 

Camryn Rocky Tahquette Despain, University of Oklahoma 

Stolen Steps: Indigenous Erasure, Settler Choreography, and the Politics of Sight in Modern Dance 

Mariana Gutierrez Lowe, Northwestern University 

In the Streets of Mexico City: Indigenous Women Voices 

Emily Nisch, Michigan State University 

Boarding School Postcards in the Newberry Archive 

Chair: Jean O’Brien, University of Minnesota 

LG Sebayan, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 

"For the Indigenous Girl in Fig. 7”: Poetry, Photographs, and a Counter-Archive As Resistance 

Aliyah Adelita Siva, University of Washington 

Revitalizing Samoan Voices in the Archive: Navigating Missionary Arrivals the Samoan Way 

Cheyenne E. Travioli, University of Michigan 

In Wakan Tanka’s Timing: The Return Home Through Generational Healing 

Lindsey Willow Smith, University of Minnesota 

Native Detroit: Native Urban Spaces outside of Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Efforts 

Chair: Brittani Orona, University of California, Davis 

April Best, Michigan State University 

Aquatic Temporalities in Craig Santos Perez’s From Unincorporated Territory [saina] and The Clean Water Act of 1972 

Daisy Donaji Matias, Northwestern University 

Ella Quien Sabía: The Contemplative Performance of María Sabina 

Carine Rofshus, Yale University 

Untitled 

Saffron Sener, Harvard University 

Peripheral Knowledges? A Closer Look at the "Codex Canadensis" 

Chair: Philip Deloria, Harvard University 

Natalie Jones-Kerwin, University of Wisconsin - Madison 

Untitled 

Lainie Scott, Oklahoma State University 

Resilience on the Range: Jicarilla Apache Cattle Ranching as an Act of Sovereignty, 1846-1900   

Freddy Lloyd, Oklahoma State University 

Indigenous Petition Language in the Age of Revolution 

Chair: Kasey Keeler, University of Wisconsin – Madison 

Charlotte Biggs, University of California - Riverside 

Unsettling Sanctuary; Guale Women and Indigenous Resilience in San Agustín de La Florida (1727-1736) 

Lesly Cabrera, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign 

P’urhépecha Women’s Environmental Activism in Michoacán between the 1980s and the Mid 2000s 

Morgan Haller, Pennsylvania State University 

The “Brave-Hearted Women”: Intersectional Political Activism through the Feminine Narrative in Akwesasne Note 

taa machiria angelina elaine salazar-salgado, Yale University 

Aging the Indian Princess: Sarah Winnemucca, Indigenous Feminism, and Critical Age Studies 

Chair: Kallie Kosc, Oklahoma State University 

Analiesa Delgado, University of Nevada – Las Vegas 

‘We Took Care of Each Other’: Health, Illness, and Care in Federal Indian Boarding Schools 

Taryn M. Dixon, Northwestern University 

Immi Ikbi Yakni Achukma: Tribal Involvement and Student Appreciation at Goodland Indian Orphanage in the Choctaw Nation, 1896-1945 

Kayleigh Lobdell, University of Wisconsin - Madison 

‘Clear the Path Forward’: Family Separation and Resistance in Indigenous Speculative Futures 

Sierra Ramirez, University of New Mexico 

A Methodological Approach to Native American Boarding School Periodicals: Reconsidering Early Twentieth-Century Student Texts as Indigenous Literary Form 

Chair: Nykkie Lugosi-Schimpf, University of Alberta 

Skylar Fetter, Yale University 

Canada Bill C-2 and Policing the Borderlands 

Sandy J. Hoye, University of Alberta 

From Fragments to Frameworks:  Linked Archival Data and Indigenous Governance 

Ash King, University of Washington 

“Where Do I Fit In?”: Inclusion or Erasure Through Language in Knowledge Organization Systems