Jean M O'Brien

Why Here? Scholarly Locations for American Indian Studies

This article takes up the problematic relationship between American Indian studies and American studies from the perspective of graduate training and disciplinary boundaries. It argues that while American studies potentially offers an ideal scholarly location for both graduate training and as a national organization (as it does for ethnic studies more broadly), AIS has not embraced, nor been embraced by, the discipline or the organization in ways that it could be. It closes by offering some possible explanations for the disconnect between AIS and American studies vis a vis ethnic studies more generally.