Natasha Varner

  

I coordinate First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies, a Mellon-funded publishing collaboration between four university presses. The First Peoples initiative is currently focused on offering support to first-time authors and, as we near the end of our third year of funding, we are beginning discussions about ways we might extend the collaboration to meet new digital publishing demands, experiment with open access, and explore the unique issues and opportunities these developments present to the field of indigenous studies. I am also a University of Arizona PhD student studying 20th century Mexican history. In my own research and scholarly output I seek to integrate new media -- specifically documentary film -- and want to explore more ways to embrace new directions in digital humanities.