Summer Pre-Law Opportunity - Arkansas Law

June 16 – July 13, 2013

http://law.uark.edu/academics/plusprogram/

LSAC’s DiscoverLaw.org PLUS Program is an immersive four-week (June 16 – July 13, 2013) summer program for up to 20 students entering their sophomore or junior year in fall 2013. Application components must be submitted by mail as one packet postmarked by Wednesday, April 10, 2013.

The program focuses on the inclusion of the following groups:

• students from colleges or universities with historical or significant populations of African American, Asian American, Latino, & American Indian students;

• who are the first generation in their family to attend college;

• who experience significant financial challenges; and

• student populations which are historically underrepresented in law school.

Preference will be given to students who are DiscoverLaw.org registrants.

Program Costs

Instruction and room and board will be provided free-of-charge. Participants will be housed in on-campus, community-style residential halls, and will have access to campus dining facilities. Two resident assistants will provide support and mentorship to participants.

Participants also will receive a $900 stipend and up to $200 in financial assistance for travel to and from the program.

Course Credit

The School of Law will collaborate with students’ home institutions for possible course credit. Course credit would be limited to a single course (additional costs may apply) and would not correspond with the stipend. The participant’s stipend is based on 20 hours of work per week and will set off loss of income from their inability to have a summer job while they are participating in the program.

LSAC’s DiscoverLaw.org PLUS Program at the University of Arkansas

New Tribal Food and Ag Think Tank at UA Law

University of Arkansas School of Law recently hired Janie Hipp (Chickasaw) to head up the Indigenous Food and Ag Initiative, the first of its kind nationally.  Indian Country Today Media's press here.  Ozarks-at-Large podcast on the program here.  TakePart's highlight on bringing youth into the focus here.   

Wisconsin Law Teaching Fellowship Seeks Application Now

The Hastie Fellowship at Wisconsin is looking for applicants.  In full disclosure, I am biased and a cheerleader for this program, which I credit with having the biggest impact on my ability to enter legal academia.  It's an LLM program, with a two-year residency at the University of Wisconsin School of Law.  The program has an excellent reputation as THE pipeline program for minority law professors.

ICWA Case before US Supreme Court 2013

As promised, here's more detail on the Baby Veronica case involving the Cherokee Nation.  The Supreme Court of South Carolina declined to finalize the adoption and the biological father, a Cherokee citizen, now has custody of the child.  Here's the South Carolina decision.  The United States Supreme Court granted cert and will hear the case in April.  Two provisions of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act are at issue.  

41st Annual Symposium on American Indian at NSU

This annual event will take place April 10-13, 2013 with the theme Technology Future, Technology Past: A Woven Link.    In conjunction with the event, there will be a reception for Cherokee educators and scholars on Wednesday April 10th, details to follow.

Angela Riley Lectures at the US Supreme Court

Not exactly Cherokee-centric, but an Oklahoma Indian woman and Citizen Potawatomi Professor Angela Riley (UCLA Law) brings down the house at the US Supreme Court historical society lecture - available on C-Span.  Her topic is native lands and kudos to Turtle Talk for the link.  

Ellen Cushman to speak at Univ of Arkansas - Feb 14th

Ellen Cushman, a noted scholar of Cherokee language and literacy will speak on “Cherokee Writing:  Mediating Traditions, Codifying Nation” on Thursday, February 14, at 4 p.m. in Room 411 of Kimpel Hall on the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville campus.

“Cherokees have a long history of conceptualizing the use of media quite differently from the alphabetic norm in order to accommodate the Cherokee language and develop the nation as a sovereign entity,” Cushman said, previewing her talk.  “Cherokees use a unique, indigenous writing system to mediate our traditions, to pursue our cultural perseverance, and to maintain our linguistic heritage.”

Cushman will offer a brief overview of the history of this mediation, revealing how one tribe continues to mediate its tradition through writing and digital videos, games, and online language classes.  Drawing on five years of ethnohistorical research, the talk will describe the evolution of the Cherokee writing system from script, to print, to digital forms and show how it continues to serve important linguistic, cultural, and historical functions for the modern Cherokee Nation, marking the nation’s civility and sovereignty at once.

Cushman is Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University.  A Cherokee Nation citizen and a former Cherokee Nation Sequoyah Commissioner,  she is the author of The Struggle and the Tools: Oral and Literate Strategies in an Inner City Community and  The Cherokee Syllabary: Writing the People’s Perseverance .

Cherokee Study Abroad Program - Summer 2013

Professor Chris Teuton (now at UNC-Chapel Hill) would like to spread the word of the "Cherokee Study Abroad," program which will be held May 27-June 28, 2013 from Qualla Boundary to Tahlequah.  The course is "an immersive study abroad course taught by Cherokee scholars across Cherokee territory, and in conversation with Cherokee community."    Deadline is Feb. 14th.

Digital brochure below: