Dr. Monika Bilka Named Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow

At CGCC, we pride ourselves on our award-winning faculty. We believe in our faculty pursuing their research interests and utilizing that research to educate our students. These distinguished faculty members add to the enriching experience at our college.

History professor Dr. Monika Bilka has been named a 2019 Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Community College Faculty Fellow for her case study Remaking a People, Restoring a Watershed: Klamath Tribal Empowerment through Natural Resource Governance. The inaugural class of fellows includes 26 faculty members.

According to the ACLS, “The Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships recognize humanities and social science faculty who teach at two-year institutions and their vital contributions to scholarship, teaching and their communities.” The inaugural class of fellows includes 26 faculty members.

“We’re thrilled to announce the recipients of these awards,” said ACLS program officer Rachel Bernard, “each of whom exemplifies the kind of rich humanistic research, innovative pedagogy and deep community engagement that is flourishing within humanities programs at two-year colleges across the country. This program serves an unmet need by supporting teacher-scholars at community colleges through flexible stipends that fellows can use to fund their research, teaching and public programming.”

The fellows will each receive a $40,000 stipend to be used for any activities that advance their research projects. They will attend a convening hosted by ACLS in fall 2020 to share their research.

“We are honored to count Dr. Bilka among our outstanding faculty at Chandler-Gilbert,” said Dr. Greg Peterson, CGCC President. “Her research will not only have a profound impact in our classrooms, but on sustainability and resource management efforts across the country. I congratulate her on the well-deserved fellowship.”

In her abstract, Dr. Bilka writes, “In 1961, the federal termination policy transferred the Klamath Tribes' land in southern Oregon out of tribal ownership and ended all federal education and social programs guaranteed to the Klamaths through their treaty with the US government. Without dismissing the traumatic effects of the termination policy, Remaking a People, Restoring a Watershed analyzes how the Klamath Tribes asserted sovereignty to influence natural resource management on public and private lands. While this case study focuses on the Pacific Northwest, it speaks to environmental issues that Native American tribes and non-Indian communities face across the United States. This project will result in a book manuscript and lessons for history, Native American studies, and sustainability courses offered through Maricopa County Community College District.”

The fellows will each receive a $40,000 stipend to be used for any activities that advance their research projects. They will attend a convening hosted by ACLS in fall 2020 to share their research.

For more information on the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellows, visit https://www.acls.org/Recent-Awardees/Mellon-ACLS-Community-College-Faculty.