Contact Information
810 S Wright
M/C 466
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Hours
Biography
Morgan L. Ridgway is a Black/Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape scholar and artist from Philadelphia, PA. Their research focuses on multitribal communities in Philadelphia, performance and gathering as decolonial strategies, and queer Indigenous theory. Currently, they are a PhD candidate with graduate minors in American Indian Studies and Queer Studies. Prior to moving to Illinois, Morgan received their dual B.A. in Psychology and Gender and Sexuality Studies from Swarthmore College. In addition to their scholarly pursuits, Morgan is particularly interested in findings points of connection between poetry, creative nonfiction, dance, mixed media, and archives in order to present historical evidence in more immersive ways.
Research Interests
Native American and Indigenous Studies
Queer Studies
Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Modern U.S. History
Race and Ethnicity
Performance Studies
Research Description
Morgan L. Ridgway specializes in twentieth century U.S. history with an emphasis on the Indigenous Mid-Atlantic. Their dissertation explores the affective and embodied dimensions of Indigenous community development within Lenapehoking/Philadelphia and the role of gathering in refusing the temporal and social pastness assigned Native people by settler ideas of the future. In the process, they critique multiculturalism as an often violent antiblack settler practice and center Indigenous women as key leaders in a multitribal community who disidentify with the settler present through intimacy, feeling, dance, and art making.
Education
M.A. History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
B.A. Gender and Sexuality Studies, Swarthmore College, 2014
B.A. Psychology, Swarthmore College, 2014
Awards and Honors
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Fellowship 2019-2020
Andrew W. Mellon Native American Scholars Initiative (NASI) Predoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019
University of Pennsylvania Visiting Scholar, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, 2018-2019
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent and Outstanding based on ICES Scores, Fall 2017
University of Illinois Graduate College Fellow, 2015-2017
Courses Taught
HIST 100: Global History