Anthropology graduate student, Nina Wilson, has been awarded the 2026 Beatrice Medicine Travel Award Scholarship. This prestigious scholarship honors the life and legacy of Dr. Beatrice Medicine, an internationally renowned anthropologist whose work profoundly shaped the discipline. A member of the Lakota Nation and an enrolled citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dr. Medicine devoted her career to advancing understanding, equity, and cultural respect within anthropology and beyond. Her distinguished contributions include Learning to Be an Anthropologist and Remaining Native (University of Illinois Press, 2001) and Drinking and Sobriety Among the Lakota Sioux (AltaMira Press, 2006).

Wilson’s master’s thesis, “Reimagining Anthropology: Towards an Anti-Racist, Feminist Ethnography,” which also informed her presentation at the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), critically examines ethnographic methodologies and proposes a more accountable, collaborative research framework. Through an analysis of ethnographies and methodological guides, her work identifies recurring themes and practices in ethnographic writing and reimagines procedural approaches to the method itself.

Her dissertation research builds on this foundation by evaluating ethnographic methods within a study focused on the discursive dimensions of LGBTQ+ kinship maintenance.

Nina will receive this award at the Society for Applied Anthropology’s 86th Annual Meeting in Albuquerque in March 2026.

Congratulations, Nina!