Description

The American Indian Studies Association (AISA) is the oldest academic association of Native American Studies scholars. AISA is jointly managed by the Native American Studies Departments at Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico—trading off coordination of association duties every two years. This grant will support AISA in their efforts to explore models of financial management including incorporating as an independent nonprofit. AISA is managed by academic departments at two different universities and neither institution devotes significant resources to the Association. They hope incorporating as a nonprofit will allow them to seek out greater opportunities for funding and carve back some of the overhead expenses both universities charge. They will hire a consultant to provide a training to the AISA board on nonprofit incorporation and other possible financial models that may be beneficial to AISA long-term sustainability. Secondly, this grant will support their 25th annual conference. HLF support will offset cost of their conference and allow them to host a graduate student conference. The graduate student pre-conference will mentor and supports graduate students. 
Support from the HLF will strengthen AISA, and in doing so, positively impact Indigenous scholars, communities, and peoples. The University of New Mexico has become the third university in the nation to create a PhD program in Native American Studies thus this grant also supports the broader ecosystem for Native American scholars. 
This grant supports program goal 1b: To ensure that knowledge makers and keepers have access to and are supported by a robust infrastructure of organizations, programs, projects, and resources .