goose

Hello All, My work is in Native American literature. Though I'm in an English department, I try to situate my work from within a "Native American Studies" perspective. As you can see from my signature, I've been accepted at Emory, Cornell, and Illinois-Urbana (I don't count Oklahoma since I will have two degrees from here). My fellow grad students tell me to go to Cornell. This would be the obvious choice, I think, if I were in a traditional field. Cornell does have a couple of Native lit people plus a separate American Indian Studies program. However,the faculty are not that well known. Emory's English department has a leading figure in the field and I would very much like to work with him. However, Emory does not have a Native Studies program. As I understand it, they are trying to build one up. This is both a pro and a con. On the one hand, I would be able to help create that program. On the other hand, the number of courses I could take and the amount of people I would be able to work with would be very small. Illinois has several Native lit people in the English department plus a really good (but relatively new) Native Studies program. I would be able to immerse myself in Native Studies/Lit coursework and meet important people throughout my time there. However, Illinois is not offering as much money and I would have a heavy teaching load. Anyone out there working in a "non-traditional" field in a similar situation? It's hard to determine what criteria I should privilege in making my decision.