PhD Candidate in Hispanic Literature
Department of
Spanish and Portuguese
Biography
Coming from the occupied ancestral lands of the Suquamish, S’Klallam and Coast Salish Nations in Washington, Kaja Gjelde-Bennett is a current PhD student and teaching assistant within the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. An independent writer and researcher, Gjelde-Bennett has participated in several scholarly projects through the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research and the Centre for Sámi Studies at UiT, including the TriArc Project. Gjelde-Bennett’s research areas include Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous rights, language revitalization, intersectional feminism and contemporary Hispanic literature. Previously, Gjelde-Bennett received an MA in Indigenous Studies (2020) from UiT the Arctic University of Norway as both a U.S.-Norway Fulbright Grantee and a Norway-America Association Scholar. Practicing Indigenous methodologies and research ethics, her master’s thesis titled, “Indigenous Efflorescence and Tjåenieh in Southern Saepmie: Rethinking Language Revitalization Research in Conversation with a Saemie Illustrator,” presents an interdisciplinary collaborative project on the current South Saemie language context in Snåasa. For her undergraduate degree, Gjelde-Bennett obtained a BA in Global Studies and Hispanic Studies (2017) from Pacific Lutheran University.