Chase Puentes, Ph.D. candidate in Geography and a FLAS fellow in Inuktut, has been awarded the Alfonso Carlos Peña Fellowship.
The Alfonso Carlos Peña Fellowship supports graduate students engaged in work related to wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House) and who hold a commitment to addressing social and environmental issues impacting American Indian, Alaska Native, and Inuit communities across North America. This award is such a gift because it will enable me to spend more time during the academic year pursuing projects with friends and collaborators in Kivalina, Alaska. I am currently using the award to plan for the creation of an Inupiaq women-led Native foods cookbook, with the goal of bringing visibility to the labors of Indigenous women in the Arctic as well as to the centrality of food in Inupiaq culture and relationships.