The field of American Indian, Native American, and Indigenous History at the University of Illinois trains graduate students in comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary historical research focused on Native North America (Canada, the U.S., & Mexico). The core faculty produce public facing, community engaged histories across a wide range of thematic subjects, time periods, and geographic regions.

Faculty expertise includes early America, Indigenous relations to the environment, religion and religious practice, gender and Indigenous feminisms, social and environmental justice, labor, urbanization, transnational relations (U.S./Canada and U.S./Mexico), tribal sovereignty and U.S. federal Indian policy. Our work intersects with other disciplines at Illinois, including American Indian Studies, African American Studies, Earth, Society and Environment, Gender & Women’s Studies, and Latina/Latino Studies.

We encourage prospective students to reach out to us to discuss their research interests.

Campus Resources

The University of Illinois is a member of the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS) that provides essential training for graduate students in Indigenous Studies. Every year, students from member universities are invited to hone their research skills at a spring workshop, delve into the Newberry collection during a summer institute, and present their work at a graduate conference.