In June of 2008, the Newberry Library founded NCAIS, The Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies, which links universities across the United States and Canada engaged in the training of graduate students in Indigenous Studies. The consortium draws on the resources of the Newberry’s world renowned collections in American Indian and Indigenous Studies to facilitate graduate student training. Each year graduate students from the member universities present their research at a graduate conference, participate in a spring workshop, and attend a three-week long summer institute.

At the heart of the training is the graduate level summer institute held at the Newberry, where students can opt to receive graduate credit at their home universities. Drawn on topics directly related to the Newberry collections, the students focus on readings related to the topic or theme of the institute and simultaneously, work in the Newberry collections on their own research. The NCAIS spring workshop is also topical but usually held at other archival sites in the United States and Canada, offering graduate students a unique opportunity to become familiar with multiple archival resources.

NCAIS has funds earmarked for both long-term and short-term funding for faculty at NCAIS member institutions. Graduate students in NCAIS can apply for funding both before and after they pass comprehensive examinations. Graduate students can use their funding to work at the Newberry but can also use their funding to work at other research institutions or on field research.

Questions should be directed to the NCAIS faculty liaison, Renanta Ryan Burchfield (rlr2@illinois.edu)

Other institutional members include Cornell University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Manitoba, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of New Mexico, University of Oklahoma, University of Washington, University of Winnipeg, University of Wisconsin, Madison, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Oklahoma State University, Penn State University, and Yale University.