Door 15

Call for Nominations: 2011 Governor's Awards for the Arts & Humanities

The Alaska Humanities Forum is now accepting applications for the 2011 Governor's Awards for the Arts & Humanities. The awards honor the contributions of individuals and groups that enrich the civic, intellectual, and cultural life of all Alaskans through the wisdom and techniques of the humanities. 

The deadline for nominations is September 1.

Criteria may include:

• Impact in furthering/advocating for the humanities in Alaska;
• Excellence in achievement in a field of study, area of research, or humanities project;
• Life-, group-, or institution-long commitment to the humanities in the state;
• Innovation in the wisdom and methods of the humanities;
• Leadership in expanding understanding and appreciation of the humanities in the state;
• Representing the best of the humanities in Alaska to the rest of the nation and the world. 

To nominate a humanities candidate click here.

The deadline for arts nominations is likewise September 1. To nominate an arts candidate click here.

 

Dr. Gordan Pullar - Civic Leader, Scholar, Mentor - Receives Humanities Award

This is the third of three Door 15 profiles of University of Alaska scholars recognized for their distinguished service to the humanities at the 2010 Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities.

 In 1985 Dr. Gordon Pullar toured for the first time the Smithsonian Institution's Kodiak collection housed in the Museum of Natural History. He was astounded by what he saw – carved wooden masks, traditional clothing, model kayaks, and other cultural items that spoke volumes of a rich heritage many had thought was forever lost.

 “I had never even seen pictures of these types of items nor did I know anyone in Kodiak that had,” Pullar recalls. “There were many Kodiak Natives that thought that our culture was dead and that we had nothing to show for it.”

Viewing the collection inspired Pullar, a Sugpiaq Native, to help establish the Alutiiq Museum, a renowned institution housing 7,500 years of Alutiiq heritage, artifacts, history, and traditions.

Helping to found the Alutiiq Museum is just one of many accomplishments for Pullar during a career that has spanned four decades. A key activist in the artifact repatriation movement as well as a staunch advocate for perpetuating and celebrating Alaska's Native cultures, Pullar was honored with a 2010 Governor's Award for the Humanities.

Oral Historian Honored for Humanities Leadership

This is the second of three Door 15 profiles of University of Alaska scholars recognized for their distinguished service to the humanities at the 2010 Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities.

Last fall the Alaska Humanities Forum honored Dr. William Schneider for his work documenting the oral histories of Alaska residents – personal stories that help define the many communities he has visited during nearly four decades devoted to preserving Alaskans' history and heritage.

It all began, Schneider says, with a visit to Beaver, a community founded as the river terminus for freighting mining supplies up to the gold mining at Chandalar Lake. Although a small community with less than 100 residents, Beaver's uniquely multicultural population included in its history descendents  of Japanese, Eskimo, Gwich’in Athabascan, and Koyukon Athabascans. The tiny Alaskan town piqued the young anthropology student's interest and became the subject of his doctoral dissertation for Bryn Mawr College.

“I was trying to find out how Indians and Eskimos came to live together in the community,” Schneider  recalls of that first visit in the early 1970s. “People were very clear with me that they did not want to be put under a microscope but that they were interested in their history. I decided to try to learn the individual histories of the people who came and settled in the community. This launched me into collecting personal histories as a way to understand the community.”

Alaska Quarterly Review Editor Honored for Humanities Leadership

This is the first of three Door 15 profiles of University of Alaska scholars recognized for their distinguished service to the humanities at the 2010 Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities, held October 21 in Fairbanks.

University of Alaska Anchorage Creative Writing and Literature professor Ronald Spatz is best known as the executive editor of the preeminent literary journal Alaska Quarterly Review. Yet during his acceptance speech at the 2010 Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities, the founder and dean of the University Honors College made clear his passion for excellence in higher education as well.

“Alaska like the rest of the nation is now at a critical juncture,” he said. “We absolutely have to get it right on education. Alaska’s students must not only graduate, but they must be able to compete nationally and internationally if they... are going to help our nation maintain its leadership in the world.”

“Alaska is missing key funding for honors education, the undergraduate research and scholarship training students need to get to the next level. We have to be able to provide more access to excellence. We must find a way to fund opportunities for our next generation of leaders.”

Spatz, a 1973 graduate of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, joined the UAA faculty in 1980 and assumed increasingly responsible roles as director of the university’s M.F.A. and B.A. Programs in Creative Writing and as department chair. Also, in 1980, Spatz and another new facuJty member, James Liszka (now UAA Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Philosophy), co-founded Alaska Quarterly Review, which has since become “one of the nation’s best literary magazines,” according to The Washington Post Book World.