Classroom Studies Come Alive

Courtney Shin is a junior majoring in English. She was awarded a Spring 2018 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Native American Literary Symposium.

This March, I was honored to attend the Native American Literary Symposium (NALS, nativelit.com) held in Lake Prior, Minnesota. The previous fall, Professor Mandy Suhr-Sytsma, had encouraged me to apply for the conference with a paper I had written for her Contemporary Multiethnic American Literature course. My research explored Susan Power’s most recent novel, Sacred Wilderness, and how holistic self-understanding results in the deconstruction of narrative borders. With a letter of acceptance, an essay, and a generous conference grant from URP, I found myself with a round-trip plane ticket to Minnesota. However, after months of excitement, a sense of dread filled the final weeks before my flight. I had never attended a conference before, never presented any research, never even been to Minnesota. It seemed that while NALS would be such an incredible opportunity, it could also be the manifestation of my worst fears: three full days of having to engage and present research among strangers. Battling nerves, I decided my mindset would have to be humble gratitude for the opportunity to learn so much. Yet even with these mental pep-talks, I don’t think I was prepared for just how much this conference would mean to me.

One of my favorite moments: The incredible poet Natalie Diaz giving a keynote speech Friday evening. My photo came out quite blurry so this is from the very kind grad student next to me, via @NALSymposium on Twitter.

The first day of the symposium, I arrived for lunch and hesitantly joined the nearest table. Two graduate students from the University of Nebraska immediately befriended me, encouraging me about my conference experience and sharing post-graduate tips. This kindness was not an anomaly. Each day I met incredible scholars who were not only eager to talk about their research but also simply to get to know me, whether it was with a fellow Californian grad student now studying in Nevada, or a children’s librarian in Minneapolis.

Over the weekend, I attended twelve sessions, every one that I could, shuttling between presentations on “Theorizing the Native Avant Garde” and the “Visual Language of ‘Ethnographic Containment.’” I kept a stack of graph paper with me to keep up with the number of notes I took. One of my favorite presentations was on “The Process of Transcultural and Transcontinental Translation.” Professors Margaret Noodin and Michael Zimmerman from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, presented their own research of translating one of Anishinaabe artist Leo Yerxa’s short stories from English into Ojibwe. Speaking in both Ojibwe and English, Noodin and Zimmerman discussed the power of language revitalization and syntactical identifiers of Ojibwe storytelling. They introduced their website, ojibwe.net, full of language-learning curriculum and stories, letting “more people know the language is alive and fine.” Perhaps most poignantly, they expressed their joy over how more young people were interested in the language – and how learning it was becoming more accessible – and emphasized that Ojibwe is a living language, expanding and changing. 

A still from Noodin and Zimmerman’s video, reading Yerxa’s story in Ojibwe with his accompanying artwork. The video can be seen here: http://ojibwe.net/stories/childrens/last-leaf-first-snowflake-to-fall/

Just like Ojibwe is a language full of life, Indigenous Literary studies is a field alive and kicking, and NALS opened my eyes to the fact. The symposium’s title, “Indians in Unexpected Places,” encouraged me to reflect on my own relationship to Indigenous studies within my academic career. I realized that prior to my course with Dr. Suhr-Sytsma, I had never engaged with Native American studies, never even recognized its scholarship in a class. Based upon my own classroom experience, Native studies were often either ignored completely or solely discussed within a historical context. And while this historic discussion is necessary and important, explaining the systems of oppression against Native populations, it often does not go further. Discussion stops short of recognizing the ways in which Indigenous communities have and continue to produce art and scholarship, and thus there is no space to critically engage with its study. NALS was the antithesis: a testament to the importance – and beautiful excitement – of studying contemporary Native literature and art.

Notes and Name Tags and Programs

After so much time learning from Indigenous Studies scholars, I wondered what I could offer in my presentation as an undergraduate. Over breakfast bowls of oatmeal and late-night head-scratching, I realized something that might make me unique was my science background. Before I had even imagined studying literature, I was a work-study student in a biochemistry lab researching protein structures through X-ray crystallography. The core belief was that figuring out the protein structure would illuminate its function. I realized this foundational relationship between structure and function had guided my own research on Sacred Wilderness: how does narrative form illuminate what the story is trying to say?

I presented on Saturday afternoon, the second-to-last time slot of the conference. Twenty minutes passed in a moment, and I only have a hazy recollection of how I made it. After restless evenings and last-minute edits, I had successfully completed my presentation! During the Q&A, students and professors in the audience encouraged me, stating they wanted to read the book again after listening, and suggested different avenues for research. One professor suggested paying closer attention to geographic borders in the novel and their significance, while another suggested I read Mishuana Goeman. Further, through this experience, I felt an “A-ha!” moment of translating my scientific knowledge of “structure equals function” to my literary studies. With this, I applied for the honors English program next fall proposing to further explore how the hybridity of genre structures becomes necessary in postcolonial literature.

Through NALS, despite all my nerves, I was able to present original research in front of graduate students and professors, and gained confidence in my own academic abilities. Further, after learning about Indigenous literature and studies in a fall semester course, I was able to see scholars working in real-time all around me. NALS was a space of cultural community and reclamation, a space of critical engagement with literary studies, and I was so honored to be a witness and participant. I am so grateful for the conference grant, giving me the opportunity to see what I learn in a classroom become alive and exciting in Lake Prior, Minnesota. 

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.