The Center for Humanities and the Arts (CHA) at the University of Colorado Boulder acknowledges that the land we occupy in Macky Auditorium is the traditional territories of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Ute nations. The CHA shares the University of Colorado Boulder land acknowledgment, which explains the reasons that the University of Colorado Boulder has crafted its land acknowledgment and the harms that have been wrought by settler colonialism.

With this land acknowledgment, we also wish to engage in a repair process—because we believe that the acknowledgment of Indigenous land should come with reparations. To that end, we have created a faculty fellowship to address the harm of settler colonialism. 

Award

Fellowships consist of a two-course teaching reduction (taken in a single semester) for faculty teaching a 2/2 load; faculty teaching a 2/1 load will receive a single course reduction and be expected to take the fellowship in the semester they are scheduled to teach their single course.

Deadline for AY 2025-2026 Fellowships: October 1, 2024

Meet the CHA Faculty Fellows!

Eligibility

The qualifications for this fellowship are the same as for our CHA Faculty Fellowship with the following additions: faculty who apply must:

  1. Be an enrolled member/citizen from one of the forty-eight tribes/sovereign nations of Colorado, or
  2. Be in relationship with/affiliated with/associated with one of the forty-eight tribes/sovereign nations of Colorado, or
  3. Be an enrolled member/citizen from a tribe/sovereign nation in the United States, or
  4. Be in relationship with/affiliated with/associated with a tribe/sovereign nation in the United States, or
  5. Be an enrolled member/citizen from a tribe/sovereign nation in one of the territories of the United States (ex: American Samoa, Puerto Rico), or
  6. Be in relationship with/affiliated with/associated with a tribe/sovereign nation in one of the territories of the United States (ex: American Samoa, Puerto Rico)

CHA Faculty Fellowship Eligibility

  1. Must be an Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor working in the humanities and the arts on the Boulder campus.
  2. A faculty member who was previously awarded a CHA Faculty Fellowship shall become eligible after six years of the award

Selection Criteria

  • Priority of candidates will be given in the order listed above for this fellowship. The intention of this fellowship is to repair the harm of settler colonialism in the space in which Macky Auditorium and the University of Colorado reside. Therefore, the hope is that faculty whose native affiliation are with one of the forty-eight tribes/sovereign nations of Colorado will be considered ahead of other enrolled members/citizens or those in relationship with/affiliated with/associated with one of the other tribes/sovereign nations impacted by US settler-colonialism. 
  • A committee comprised of a member of the CHA faculty steering committee, a former CHA faculty fellow, and a faculty member of Native American/Indigenous studies will read and review applications.

Application Procedure

  • Fellowship Proposal: No more than four pages written free of jargon - remember, your application will be read by a committee of your faculty peers across the spectrum of arts and humanities departments. Strong proposals often tell a story about your scholarship/artistic work, so in writing your statement, keep in mind the following:
    • Significance: Demonstrate the potential impact of your work.
    • Project Design: Does your project address all relevant issues in a form that offers a coherent engagement with your research topic?
    • Feasibility: Can you demonstrate that you will be able to make significant progress during your fellowship towards the timely completion of your scholarly project?
    • Qualifications: What past work has led you to take up this specific project at this point in your career?
      Format: Four-page (max), double-spaced PDF, 12-pt font, 2 MB max file size
       
  • Outline: One page (12-point font) of the structure of your project—this can include chapter descriptions. NOTE: if the applicant is an artist, you can upload artistic images or a sound file or website as an example of your project (if you choose this option please reach out to chagrants@colorado.edu)
    Format: One page PDF (single or double spaced), 12-pt font, 2 MB max file size
     
  • CV: 4-page maximum
    Files must be less than 2 MB.
    Allowed file types: pdf
     
  • Complete the Application Form and upload the application materials

CHA Faculty Fellowship Application Form

Reparative Faculty Fellowship to Address Settler Colonialism 2024-2025 Fellow

Angelica Lawson, Ethnic Studies Angelica Lawson smiling and wearing a blue jacket
Inaugural Reparative Faculty Fellowship to Address Settler Colonialism
Enacting Our Futures: Resistance and Resilience in Indigenous Women’s Resurgence Media
“Enacting Our Futures: Resistance and Resilience in Indigenous Women’s Resurgence Media,” explores the intersections of Indigenous digital studies, literature, and ecocinema through Native American women’s creative works using resurgence theory—an Indigenous feminist framework most notably developed in the work of Anishinaabe scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Indigenous resurgence specifically refers to political strategies and cultural practices aimed at strengthening Indigenous peoplehood in ways that elevate our epistemologies and ontologies while interrogating legacies of colonialism in our societies, especially inequities along lines of gender and sexuality. Historically, art served both practical and ceremonial purposes, richly layered with symbolic meaning and deeply rooted in Indigenous thought systems. Today’s writers and filmmakers are doing similar work, invoking new modes for insuring continuance, and while the last three decades have seen a proliferation of Indigenous women’s literature, film, and digital media using Indigenous languages created by women who are heavily invested in community engagement—both of which are elements central to Indigenous resurgence, these works have received scant attention in literary and film scholarship. My project seeks to reverse this trend, and to contribute to Indigenous feminist resurgence theory by engaging the work of four lesser-known Native women writers and filmmakers. I demonstrate how, through their community engagement and creative cultural productions, they assert Indigenous presence and futurity in the face of ongoing settler-colonial forces of erasure.

Land acknowledgments honor the contributions, histories and place-based knowledge of Indigenous peoples with historic and contemporary ties to lands across what is today known as the United States. Land acknowledgments also recognize the devastating and lasting impacts of the forced assimilation and forced removal of Indigenous peoples from their traditional territories and ancestral homelands, including the lands that are now part of Colorado and the University of Colorado Boulder.

CU Boulder, founded the same year Colorado became a state in 1876, recognizes that it sits on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute and many other Native American nations. Recognizing the history of the state, the university and the campus’s origin story, however difficult, and the histories and experiences of the Indigenous peoples who have lived in these territories for millennia aligns with the campus’s academic and research missions as Colorado’s flagship public research university.

CU Boulder’s land acknowledgment is an iterative work in progress and is expected to evolve over time. While it is not a requirement, students, faculty and staff may read the land acknowledgment during campus meetings and use it in email signatures and on campus websites to show their support for the success and well-being of Indigenous students, faculty and staff at CU Boulder, for Native American communities in Colorado and nationwide, and for First Peoples worldwide.

University of Colorado Boulder Land Acknowledgment

The University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado’s flagship university, honors and recognizes the many contributions of Indigenous peoples in our state. CU Boulder acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and many other Native American nations. Their forced removal from these territories has caused devastating and lasting impacts. While the University of Colorado Boulder can never undo or rectify the devastation wrought on Indigenous peoples, we commit to improving and enhancing engagement with Indigenous peoples and issues locally and globally.

We will do this by:

Recognizing and amplifying the voices of Indigenous CU Boulder students, staff and faculty and their work.

Educating, conducting research, supporting student success and integrating Indigenous knowledge.

Consulting, engaging and working collaboratively with tribal nations to enhance our ability to provide access and culturally sensitive support and to recruit, retain and graduate Native American students in a climate that is inclusive and respectful.