By Julia Fedoruk ’26

In this third episode of the Wes and the World Podcast, hear from Dr. Erica Kowsz, the Associate Director of Fellowships at the Fries Center for Global Studies (FCGS) and Assistant Staff Professor. From Hebron, Connecticut, she holds a bachelors in Archaeology with a minor in Hispanic Studies and Art from Hamilton College and a PHD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Along with her work for the UMass Amherst Institute for Social Science Research, she has been a Fulbright fellow (Canada, 2011-2012), a Beinecke Scholar (2012-2015), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow (2014-2019), a two-time recipient of the Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) award through the US NSF and Norwegian Research Council (2017-2018, 2019), and a Mellon-Council for European Studies Dissertation Writing Fellow (2020-2021). She brings this expertise into her work with the FCGS, where she supports Wesleyan students and alumni applying for nationally competitive awards, and teaching the Wesleyan Global Engagement Minor Capstone Course. She speaks Spanish and some Norwegian.

During the episode, Dr. Kowsz discusses her undergraduate studies and research journey post-grad, including her influential visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, her time studying abroad in Peru, how the process of filming and editing her documentary about Indigenous Peoples in British Colombia led to her Fulbright post-grad, and her comparative research between the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Norway and in New England. She also discusses her present-day life, from archaeological digs in her back yard to translating her research journey to fellowship advising, and her involvement with the Indigenous Studies Research Network at Wesleyan.

Listen to the episode now on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple!