The APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grants provide support for research that examines political science phenomena affecting historically underserved communities and underrepresented groups and communities. In December 2023, APSA awarded ten projects for the APSA Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grants for Indigenous Politics for a combined amount of $20,000. Read about the funded projects here: https://apsanet.org/DIVERSITY/APSA-Diversity-Advancing-Research-Grants/2023-Advancing-Research-Grants-for-Indigenous-Politics-Recipients

PROJECT TITLE:

Weaving our Liberations: Navigational Relationality and Chamorro Refusal in Låguas and Gåni

SAMANTHA MARLEY BARNETT is a PhD candidate in the Indigenous politics program in the political science department at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Samantha is the co-founder of Tåhdong Marianas, a collective of Chamorro artists and activists, and a lead author in a project with the University of Guam Press to write elementary school textbooks from a culturally rooted, Chamorro perspective. She is also a German Chancellor Fellow, currently conducting a research residency and working on repatriation efforts at the Oceania Collection in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.

PROJECT TITLE:

Why Autonomy? Extraction, Resistance, and Historical Origins of Indigenous Demands in Latin America

CHRISTOPHER CARTER is an assistant professor in the department of politics and John L. Nau III assistant professor of the History and Principles of Democracy at the University of Virginia. He is also a research associate at the Center on the Politics of Development at the University of California, Berkeley. In his book project, he examines why some Indigenous groups demand autonomy while others do not. The research for this project won the 2020 APSA Best Fieldwork Award and the 2021 Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democracy. He also has published or has forthcoming work on local governance in Latin America, methods for causal inference, and the regulation of gig economy labor in the United States. All of his work employs a multi-method approach, using experimental and natural experimental data as well as extensive interviewing and archival research.

PROJECT TITLE:

Taking Back Politics: A Study of Letters Written by Indigenous Peoples Over the Last 50 Years

RAFAEL COSTA (XUCURU-KARIRI) is a researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences at the Federal University of Bahia, where he obtained his PhD. He studies the political thought of indigenous peoples. The main focus of his research is the public letters written by these communities, investigating the concepts and interpretations about living and dying as an indigenous person in contemporary states.

PROJECT TITLE:

Engaging Wisconsin’s Native Americans in Social Science Research: Overcoming Non-Response Survey Challenges

NATALIE JONES-KERWIN is a third-year doctoral student in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in American politics. As a proud tribal member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indian tribe, Natalie draws inspiration from her heritage, driving her passion for research and pursuit of a PhD. She holds positions as an American Political Science Association Diversity Fellow (2023) and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, in addition to being honored with the SHEP American Indian Graduate Award. Her academic focus revolves around Native American political identity, trust, and behavior. In her latest publication featured in Political Behavior, Natalie conducted original survey research, revealing the pivotal role of group consciousness in elucidating intragroup variations in Native American non-tribal political behavior. Presently, her empirical research endeavors aim to explore additional mechanisms, such as trust and access to the ballot, that illuminate the intricate relationship between Native American identity and political behavior.

PROJECT TITLE:

Native American Support for the American Legal System

JAY KREHBIEL is an associate professor of political science at West Virginia University. His research lies at the intersection of judicial behavior and public opinion, with a particular focus on how citizens’ attitudes influence judicial power and efficacy in democracies. His work, which spans American, comparative, and international contexts, has appeared in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, International Organization, and the British Journal of Politics.

PROJECT TITLE:

Canadian Indian Residential Schools Data Collection Project

DR. MOIRA LYNCH (she/her/hers) is an associate professor in the department of politics, geography and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Dr. Lynch completed her PhD in political science at the University of Minnesota. Her research examines the conditions for justice during internal armed conflict, human rights prosecutions, transitional justice in post-communist Eastern European states, gender equality in post-conflict settings, and justice efforts in democracies. She teaches courses on international politics, international law, global justice, global climate policy, gender, human rights and civil war.

PROFESSOR KIRSTEN LINDBLOOM (she/her/hers) is a faculty member in the sociology, criminology and anthropology department at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Professor Lindbloom completed her MA in sociology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Current class topics include Sociological Theory, Sociology of Human Sexuality, Social Psychology and Sociology Through Film. Research interests include social movements, social justice and cultural genocide. Professor Lindbloom works collaboratively with the National Indigenous Residential Museum of Canada to support its education efforts and museum exhibit expansion.

PROJECT TITLE:

Infertile Bodies-Territories: Extractivism and Indigenous Women’s Rights in Latin America

KARLA MUNDIM is an assistant professor of political science at John Jay College-CUNY. She earned her PhD from the University of Florida, and her research interests include Indigenous social movements, extractivism, theories of colonialism, multiculturalism, and territoriality, with a particular focus on Latin America. Her ongoing book project explores Indigenous movements in the Andean region through a comparative-historical lens. Her work on Indigeneity, gender, and territoriality has been published in Politics, Groups, and Identities. Prior to joining John Jay, Dr. Mundim worked as a comparative politics editorial assistant and the Interim Book Review editor for Perspectives on Politics.

PAUL M. B. GUTIERREZ is an assistant professor of political science at Boston University. He was previously a Chancellor’s Fellow at UC Berkeley, School of Law. His research explores the intersections of political theory, political economy, and law, particularly within the historical context of the settler colonial US. He is working on two projects. The first uncovers and traces the settler colonial and revolutionary origins of the modern corporation in America. The second reevaluates the political-economic legacies of Jeffersonian thought relative to contemporary challenges with the climate, inequality, race, and settler colonialism.

STACEY LIOU is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida. She is a contemporary political theorist whose research focuses on popular politics and democratic theory, with additional interests in feminist theory and the politics of language. Her current book project examines the politics of protest by analyzing public discourses about the 1992 LA Riots/Uprising and the city’s 1994 march against California’s anti-immigrant measure Proposition 187. Stacey’s work has been published in Political Theory, European Journal of Political Theory, and Space & Polity.

PROJECT TITLE:

Fragmented Indigenous Struggle: Contentious Politics and the Mapuche in Chile

VANESSA NAVARRO RODRIGUEZ is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Vanessa broadly focuses on themes regarding power dynamics, marginalization, and agency in comparative politics. In her dissertation she studies the effect of extraction in the south of Chile on the Mapuche’s political behavior and identity formation through multi-methods research. Before attending UC Berkeley, she graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in government. Her work has been supported by UC Berkeley’s Global, International, and Area Studies; UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies; and the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute.

PROJECT TITLE:

“Kuule, müö tiä olemmo:” Meijän tulevazuksii, meijän arhiivat—“Listen, We Are Here:” Our Futures, Our Archives

SARA MAARIA SAASTAMOINEN (hän, she, they) is a karjalaine (Karelian), suomalainen (Finnish), and naturalized American award-winning advocate, multimedia artist, interdisciplinary scholar, university instructor, and futures strategist. Her growing body of work navigates transcorporeal ecologies of kinship and care, diasporic constructions of karjalažus (Karelian identity), and collectively sown abundant futures. They are a Futures Fellow with the United Nations Development Programme while pursuing their PhD in political science at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

PROJECT TITLE:

Blood and Soil Liberalism: The Political Economy of Native American Assimilation Policy

THOMAS KLEMM is a political science PhD candidate (ABD) at the University of Michigan. His dissertation is looking at the political economy of Native assimilation policies, as well as their legacies in Indian Country today. Specifically, he is looking both at the ways in which capitalism often shapes the contours of Post-Indian wars Federal Indian policy, as well as how liberal humanitarian justifications, such as the introduction of liberal forms of private property ownership via allotment policy, have been made in service of policies that caused massive tribally held land loss and cultural genocide via American Indian Boarding schools. Thomas is an enrolled member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi and is Turtle Clan. His work is inspired by being a descendant of multiple family members who were survivors of the Indian boarding school era in the 20th century.