Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant: An Examination of Alaska Native Leadership Development

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This is a doctoral dissertation research project on how young Alaska Native women develop leadership skills through an ethnographic examination of Native Nations Pageants. Native Nations Pageants are not beauty contests, the participants are judged on a broad range of skills including: knowledge of their heritage language, traditional storytelling, singing, or dancing, and demonstrated leadership skills. Although Native Nations Pageants have existed since the 1950s, very little scholarship beyond descriptive narratives has been done to date. This research project will examine why the many American Indian and Arctic Nations have adapted the western construct of a ?beauty contest,? into their own culturally appropriate form. This project will study the relationship between these pageants in Alaska and their relationship to developing young women as role models and leaders for Alaskan communities. Understanding the process of developing young leaders in indigenous communities could be critical to creating opportunities for creating leadership skills and the long-term sustainability and well being of these diverse communities and cultural groups.