Grants
The Spicer Foundation started a mini grant program which launched in 2015 after we obtained our 501(c)3 tax exempt status. We awarded grants annually for a total of 4 years starting out with one $500 recipient and doubled the amount of our grant making to $1,000 in 2017 and 2018. The mini grant program picked back up again in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We awarded two grants totaling $2,500 in 2020. In 2023 and we awarded three grants totaling $3,000 and in 2024 we awarded two grants totaling $3,000.
We have granted a total of $11,500 towards funding 12 field research and applied projects in the areas of: A Spicer Memorial Desk exhibit, language revitalization in Northern Mexico, marginalization of populations in the middle east and Germany, land and water rights in Mexico and COVID-19 pandemic response through community gardens, educational support and advocacy for immigrant and primary spanish speaking children and families. Most recently we awarded funding in support of indigenous art in Alaska, a local Maya community museum, Garifuna language preservation and two projects focused on language, cultural and spiritual understanding preservation in India.
In 2016 we established a research fellow position after identifying a graduate student who had begun doing extensive research on the Spicer Archive housed at the Arizona State Museum (ASM) on the campus of University of Arizona (U of A) in Tucson. This position was funded with annual stipends for two years.
Our first fellow Nick Barron not only assisted with materials for our first grantee in 2015, he spoke on a panel at the U of A School of Anthropology Centennial event in 2016 and engaged in continued work and partnership with the Archival Staff to assist with archiving photo collections and other material in the Spicer Archive, which was first established by Roz Spicer in collaboration with ASM after Ned's passing.
Below is a list of all of our grantees, a brief summary of their work with links to the full reports on their funded projects. We are planning to continue our grant making efforts as a small international non profit foundation and hope to have more details posted about that soon.
Spicer Foundation Board members and mini grant recipient standing in front of Spicer Memorial Desk at Old Pascua Yaqui Museum and Culture Center in Fall of 2015. This was the foundations first funded mini grant project. From left to right starting in the back: Dr. Susan Penfield, Dr. Lawson Spicer, Scott Spicer, Barry Spicer, Dr. J. Jefferson Reid, Pendleton Spicer, Bill Quiroga and Dr. Diane Austin.
Old Pasqua Yaqui Museum and Cultural Center in Tucson, Arizona
In 2015, the Foundation launched its first annual mini grant program and awarded $500 to the Old Pascua Yaqui Museum and Culture Center in Tucson, Arizona, for construction of a Spicer Memorial Desk Exhibit. The exhibit was completed by Fall of that year and opened to the public. In December, a colloquium was held at the University of Arizona School of Anthropology as a part of the School’s Centennial celebrations, focusing on the history of anthropology at the School. Scott Spicer, Bill Quiroga from Old Pascua Yaqui, and Nick Barron participated in the panel to speak about Ned Spicer’s work and time at the School of Anthropology, along with providing background information on the Foundation and the Spicer Memorial Desk exhibit. School of Anthropology Director and Spicer Foundation honorary advisory board member, Diane Austin, also brought students to visit the Old Pascua Yaqui Museum and Culture Center, including the Spicer Memorial Desk Exhibit.
Linguistic Revitalization for the Huave Language in southern Mexico
In 2016, the Foundation launched the 2nd mini grant cycle and awarded funds to its first international project. This project focused on an indigenous language education and retention program, led by Dr. Laura Montesi, who had recently completed her Ph.D. in anthropology at University of Kent in England. Dr. Montesi was assisted by Guillermo Hernández Santana.
The work was done in San Dionisio del Mar, a rural community facing the Pacific Ocean in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico. The people of this community, the Sandionisians, identify themselves as Huave or Ikojts. Intergenerational transmission of the Ikojts native language -- Umbeyajts, literally "our mouth" -- has severely declined in favor of Spanish or other languages. The project identified Ikojts bilingual teachers and worked with 11- and 12-year-old children in the fifth and sixth grades at a local school to teach understanding and practical experience with their native language. A link to the report on the project methods and outcomes is provided.
Negotiating Anxiety and Ambivalence towards Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Board made a strategic change in 2016 to focus the annual mini grant program on modern day social justice issues and their ties to applied anthropology. Two mini grant awards were made in 2017 to conduct research related to social justice issues within the context of two different middle eastern populations. In the project involving Syrian refugees, Rachel Rosenbaum, a graduate student in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona (UA), investigated the changing relationship between the Lebanese community in Beirut and the Syrian refugees who have fled the ongoing war in Syria. A link to her report is provided.
Unions and Divisions in Iraqi Ezidi Refugee Wedding Celebrations in Germany
In the second mini grant for 2017, Allison Stuewe, a graduate student in anthropology at the UA, studied how members of an Ezidi refugee community that has relocated from Kurdish regions in Iraq have adapted to life in Germany. A link to her report is provided.
Both mini-grant recipients for 2017 made presentations on their research during a session entitled “ ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Shifting Lines of Exclusion and the Legacy of Ned Spicer” during the November 2017 International Education Week at the UA. The session was co-sponsored by the Foundation, the UA School of Anthropology, and the UA Press.
Enduring Politics: Land Tenure and Partisanship in Sonora, Mexico
The Foundation awarded a mini grant in 2018 to Elizabeth M. Eklund, a doctoral candidate in the UA School of Anthropology, who conducted field research related to the social memory of clean water in relation to the ancient O’odham irrigation canals and O’odham settlements. This fieldwork was done in the lands once controlled by the Ópata / Tegüima peoples to address questions about the endurance of knowledge related to land and water use despite adversity. Ms. Eklund led participatory walks in the Sonora River Valley near Banámichi, where she examined contemporary water management schemes and their indigenous heritage. A link to her final report is provided.
Building Support for Immigrant Families in Flagstaff Schools
The foundation awarded a mini grant in 2020 to Leah Mundell, Ph.D. a faculty in Anthropology at Northern Arizona for her project involving a collaboration between Northern Arizona Institutions for Community Leadership (NAICL) and Community and University Public Inquiry (CUPI) at Northern Arizona University. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CUPI/NAICL team expanded its focus to ensure that families have access to information about schools, health care, and community resources in a language they understand and with a particular focus on the needs of undocumented and immigrant residents. Students continued the work, despite social distancing requirements, through phone calls and Zoom meetings, communicating with immigrant parents and developing accessible community resource lists. The research team also developed a language access survey, with the support of the FUSD superintendent, that asks teachers and parents to evaluate the second-language resources available for communication with families. A link to the final report is provided below.
responding to the covid-19 pandemic through community gardens: a lifeline to food security
The Spicer Foundation awarded a mini grant in 2020 to Community Gardens of Tucson (CGT) for a project undertaken by Stephanie Beuchler, Ph.D. and graduate student Sehdia Mansaray, MDP in collaboration with CGT staff. The stated objectives were to conduct 20 qualitative interviews with under/unemployed gardeners to investigate the effect of gardening on produce accessibility for gardeners and their household members, any limitations they experienced gardening under COVID-19 conditions, and the strengths and weaknesses of social and institutional networks related to gardening during COVID-19. Grant funds also supported 6 months worth of plot fee waivers and some of Ms. Mansaray’s time for research assistance. A link for the final report is provided below.
Enduring and Persistent Peoples: Tlingit and Haida Cedar Arts in Southeast Alaska
The Spicer Foundation awarded a mini grant in 2023 to Ben Bridges a dual PhD candidate in Folklore & Anthropology at Indiana University. His dissertation research focuses on traditional Southeast Alaska Native arts involving red and yellow cedar, examining contemporary practices of harvesting and artmaking in the context of the logging industry and climate change. The support from the Spicer Foundation will help clarify the complexities of sustainable Alaska Native arts and provide resources to ensure the materials collected during fieldwork remain accessible to residents of Southeast Alaska
The Museo Najil Tucha: Fostering Local Maya Voices
The Spicer foundation awarded a mini grant in 2023 to Nicholas Puente a PhD student in anthropology focusing on archaeology at the University of Colorado at Boulder to establish the Museo Najil Tucha with the contemporary Maya community in Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico. The Museo Najil Tucha project will increase pride in disappearing indigenous languages by creating Yucatec Mayan signage and tell a local history of the Punta Laguna Maya. The project hopes to honor the Spicer’s commitment to persistent peoples by supporting the community in telling the history of the ancient and modern Maya communities of Punta Laguna and simultaneously demonstrating the persistence of Maya peoples and practices.
Digital Persistence: Funding Online Garifuna Language Classes
in the Pearl Lagoon Basin, Nicaragua
The Spicer Foundation awarded a mini grant in 2023 to Andrew Gorvetzian an anthropology PhD student focusing on ethnology at the University of New Mexico, to support Garifuna language revitalization classes in Orinoco and Bluefields, Nicaragua. The Garifuna are an Afro-Indigenous group with communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, and Guatamala, with sizable diaspora populations in New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. This grant from the Spicer Foundation offers vital support for a grassroots, community project to deliver language classes to community members in the hope that Garifuna is spoken for generations to come.
Interpreting the Ritual Aesthetics of Chomangkan (Propitiating the Ancestors and the Spirits)
The Spicer foundation awarded a mini grant in 2024 to Kareng Ronghangpi, PhD candidate at Royal Global University, Assistant Professor at Diphu Government College, and Member of the Centre for Karbi Studies, focusing on Karbi community festivals and traditions in Northeast India. The Karbi celebrate many festivals and among these cherished traditions, Chomangkan stands as a poignant homage to the departed, a three-day ceremonial journey that traverses the realms of the living and the dead. Rooted in the belief of ancestral reverence, Chomangkan encapsulates the core of Karbi spirituality, offering a sacred pathway for the souls of the deceased to find reconnect with their kin members in the land of their forebears, Phu-Phi Arong, the village of ancestors. Within the fabric of Chomangkan lie layers of meaning, each symbol and motif imbued with profound stories and philosophical associations, often overlooked or misunderstood by contemporary observers.
Language and Persistence: An Intergenerational Study of Collective Identity amongst Gujjars and Bakerwals, the Transhumant Pastoral Tribe of Jammu and Kashmir, India
The Spicer Foundation awarded a mini grant in 2024 to Tanu Gupta, Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu, India, focusing on language study among peoples in Kashmir India. The research involved initiating a theoretical discussion around the intersection of two overlapping schools of thought – Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Cognition – in the context of narratives around tribal communities whose collective identities have strongly endured in India. The project aims to investigate how language has adapted to foster cohesive identity, delineate social roles, and cultivate a distinct performative style within the lifeworld of communities that have been subjected to social injustices for decades.
Research Fellow
The Foundation awarded its first research fellowship in 2016 to Nicholas Barron, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of New Mexico. The focus of the fellowship was to assist the work being done by the Arizona State Museum (ASM) to secure the Spicer Archives for future generations of scholars. These archives represent the body of work in a variety of media that was originally compiled by Rosamond B. Spicer together with the assistance of graduate students and the ASM following Edward H. Spicer's passing in 1982. Mr. Barron worked specifically with ASM staff on processing these important documents to secure the Spicer research legacy for future generations of scholars and has been a vital asset in conducting ongoing scholarly work related to the Spicer's legacy with the publication of several online articles.
"It is truly an honor to have my work chosen by the Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer Foundation. Spicer's work, Cycles of Conquest, is a definitive work because it reshaped the way scholars thought of the waves of interaction between colonizers and native peoples in the Southwest United States and Northwestern Mexico,"
Elizabeth Eklund 2018 Mini grant recipient
