Jamie Clegg received CompLit summer internship funding in 2021 to work with a team of women filmmakers on a short documentary about Yoruk tribal members’ efforts to return fire to the land toward cultural, ecological, and spiritual healing. She participated in developing a curriculum to be distributed with the film, establishing a presence on social media, negotiating legal contracts, and management of expenses.
She writes: “Engaging with the philosophies and stories of the Yurok tribe has augmented my understanding of other Indigenous philosophies and literatures that I’ve studied. In meetings with the producers, directors, and educators, I often found myself jotting notes down for a chapter of my dissertation, or reframing questions I had previously thought were dead-end. This experience also helped me realize that I need to do creative work post-graduation, however much I enjoy literary criticism, critical theory, or the like. It revived my creative energy in many ways.”
