The College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University awarded five New Frontier Grants to cutting edge projects in science, social science and the humanities.
Kurt Jordan, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, is part of the project team for “Reconceptualizing Haudenosaunee Studies” which received a 2024 New Frontier Grant.
The project team includes John Whitman, professor of linguistics; Kurt Jordan, professor of anthropology; Jolene Rickard, associate professor of history of art and visual studies; and Stephen Henhawk, research associate in linguistics and program associate in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.
“Reconceptualizing Haudenosaunee Studies” aims to advance Haudenosaunee studies in linguistics, anthropology/archaeology, and art/history of art while changing long-dominant methods in the field.
Foregrounding involvement of community members and knowledge keepers, particularly Stephen Henhawk, the researchers will focus on Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ (Cayuga), the indigenous language and people of the Cayuga Lake region, while touching all the Haudenosaunee nations and the diaspora into which many Haudenosaunee people have been driven. Research goals include revision of the stereotyped “polysynthetic” characterization of Haudenosaunee languages; rewriting the narrative of the long-term Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ habitation in the region; and re-inscription of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ physical presence here.
