The American Indian Program at Cornell University is pleased to announce its membership in the Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies (NCAIS). Slated to begin in July 2009, the Consortium will be trans-national in scope and will organize conferences, symposia, workshops and courses, as well as offer fellowships for graduate students and faculty from fifteen to eighteen member institutions in the United States and Canada. Thus far, other institutional members include Harvard, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of British Columbia, University of Montana, Miami of Ohio, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Through its 2004 acquisition of the Huntington Free Library, Cornell University ranks in the top three research libraries for AIS in North America, second only to the Newberry Library and the Library of Congress. Cornell's commitment to NCAIS will ensure that its investment in the Huntington Free Library is fully optimized for the future.

What Membership in NCAIS Means for Cornell:

• a fully-compensated place for one graduate student in an annual graduate workshop (three to four days), and an annual summer institute (three to four weeks);
• the opportunity for graduate student participation in an annual graduate conference at either the Newberry Library in Chicago or a member institution;
• the opportunity for faculty participation in an annual faculty research symposium at either the Newberry Library in Chicago or a member institution;
• an opportunity for graduate students to apply for 1-2 month dissertation research fellowships (at $2,500/mo., with eighteen months total to be awarded per year) at the Newberry in Chicago;
• an opportunity for graduate students to participate in, and for faculty to propose and host research symposia, graduate workshops, and summer institutes, and to receive stipends for these activities. 

The NCAIS emerged from the consortium of AIS programs (the Committee for Institutional Cooperation American Indian Studies Consortium [CIC-AISC]). The earlier consortium operated from 2000 to 2008 and earned recognition for its high quality interdisciplinary AIS programming, especially in the area of graduate education. The NCAIS will draw upon the Newberry Library's remarkable collections, the resources of its D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, and the successful experience of the CIC-AISC.

For more information, contact Assistant Professor Jon Parmenter, 304 McGraw Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, Phone: (607) 255–1876, Fax: (607) 255–0469, E-mail: jwp35@cornell.edu.