Great Plains Center announces 2013 graduate fellows

            The University of Nebraska's Center for Great Plains Studies has appointed eight University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate students to its Graduate Fellows Program.

            The students (the second round to be accepted since the program’s inception) are Mikal Brotnov of Kamiah, Idaho, William England of Grand Island, Joshua Ewalt of Berrien Springs, Mich., Kent Fricke of Columbus, Nora Greiman of University City, Mo., Joe Hamm of Johnstown, Colo., Jason Hertz of Askov, Minn., and Kristin Sorensen of Wichita, Kan.

            Brotnov is a doctoral student in history whose focus is on Jews and Native Americans in the Great Plains. This year, Brotnov co-authored and co-presented a paper at the Newberry Consortium on American Indian Studies on approaches to teaching Native American History.

            England is a doctoral student in teaching, learning, and teacher education examining education policy and practice (particularly in the new Latino diaspora) and applying GIS and geographic research methods to education research. He presented a project at the 2013 Great Plains Symposium in this area.

            Ewalt is a doctoral student in communication studies focusing on how symbols influence a community's understanding of the place in which they reside. His works have been published in the Western Journal of Communication, Cultural Studies & Critical Methodologies and Quarterly Journal of Speech.

            Fricke is a doctoral student in natural resource sciences researching how to manage natural resources in dynamic landscapes, including looking at the management of invasive species. He is the student liaison to the governing council of The Wildlife Society.

            Greiman is a master's student in professional archaeology in the anthropology department whose main focus is human exploitation of the Nebraska Sandhills during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (A.D. 900-1400). She's the editor of her department's student journal, Nebraska Anthropologist.

            Hamm is a doctoral student in psychology and law researching Great Plains land owner perceptions of natural resources management agencies. He has made connections with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the Northern Prairies Land Trust to do this research.

            Hertz is a doctoral student in English and literature studies whose focus is on Native American autobiographies in the Great Plains. He won the John W. Robinson Prize for best graduate student scholarly essay in the English department on a paper on film and Native American Studies.

            Sorensen is a doctoral student in geography with a focus on the frontier settlement in the Great Plains from 1860-70, using census and county history demographics data. She has been awarded the chance to present a paper at the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association on the historical applications of GIS.

            The center invites applications from students in Great Plains-related disciplines from all University of Nebraska campuses. Students need to be nominated by a center faculty fellow and to be enrolled in a doctoral program or a terminal degree master's program. Each fellow will receive a number of benefits including research and travel funds.

Writer: Katie Nieland