Jodi Ann Byrd is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

indigenous academic. They recently became an associate professor of Literatures in English at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, where they also hold an affiliation with the American Studies Program. Their research applies

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

to indigenous studies and

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

, science and technology studies,

game studies Game studies, also known as ludology (from ''ludus'', "game", and ''-logia'', "study", "research"), is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them. It is a field of cultural studies that deals with a ...

indigenous feminism Indigenous feminism is an intersectional theory and practice of feminism that focuses on decolonization, indigenous sovereignty, and human rights for Indigenous women and their families. The focus is to empower Indigenous women in the context o ...

and indigenous sexualities. They also possess research interests in American Indian Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, Digital Media, Theory & Criticism.

Personal

Byrd is the child of physician John Byron Byrd (1944–2008) and a descendant of William L. Byrd, who served as governor of the Chickasaw Nation from 1888 to 1890 and 1890 to 1892. They are a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

Education, career, and service

Byrd holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

(2002) in English literature from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. Their dissertation was ''Colonialism's Cacophony: Natives and Arrivants at the Limits of Postcolonial Theory''. Before teaching at Cornell, they taught at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, and before that they were an assistant professor of indigenous politics in the department of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They were formerly associated with the American Indian Studies Program at Illinois. In the wake of the Illinois administration's failure to hire Steven Salaita into the program, whom they had championed as acting director of the program, they considered offers to move to three other universities. However, the University of Illinois persuaded them to stay and provided them an alternative position in the English and Gender and Women's Studies departments. They are the co-editor of the Critical Insurgencies series for Northwestern University Press. They were president of the

Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures The Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures (ASAIL) is a professional academic organization. It was founded in 1971 to promote the study, criticism, and research of American Indian literary traditions, both written and oral. Its ...

for 2011–2012. In 2012, they were adopted as a Clan Sister (one of the central organizing members) of the

Native American Literature Symposium The Native American Literature Symposium (NALS) is a Native American literature conference. It was founded in 2001. It is held at a tribal venue every spring. The NALS was first established by a group of independent scholars committed to creating a ...

, which they have stated has been an inspiring community for them since their first days as a graduate student. Byrd has also served as an editorial board member for the journal ''Critical Ethnic Studies''.

Awards and recognition

Byrd's 2011 book ''The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism'' won the 2011 Best First Book of the Year award from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, and the 2012 Wordcraft Circle Award for Academic Work of the Year. Earlier, Byrd won the 2008 Beatrice Medicine Award for Scholarship in American Indian Studies of the

for their paper "Living my native life deadly: Red Lake, Ward Churchill, and the discourses of competing genocides" (''

American Indian Quarterly The ''American Indian Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering studies on the indigenous peoples of North and South America. It is published by the University of Nebraska Press and was established in 1974. The editor-in-c ...

'', 2007).

Selected works

Books

* ''The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism'' ( University of Minnesota Press, 2011, ).

Journal articles

;2018 * Predatory Value: Economies of Dispossession and Disturbed Relationalities * “Variations under Domestication”: Indigeneity and the Subject of Dispossession ;2016 * Still Waiting for the “Post” to Arrive: Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and the Imponderables of American Indian Postcoloniality ;2015 * "Do They Not Have Rational Souls?": Consolidation and Sovereignty in Digital New Worlds ;2014 * Arriving on a Different Shore: US Empire at Its Horizons * Follow the Typical Signs: Settler Sovereignty and its Discontents * Introduction: Indigeneity's Difference: Methodology and the Structures of Sovereignty * Tribal 2.0: Digital natives, political players, and the power of stories ;2009 * ‘In the City of Blinding Lights’: Indigeneity, Cultural Studies and the Errants of Colonial Nostalgia ;2007 * "Living My Native Life Deadly": Red Lake, Ward Churchill, and the Discourses of Competing Genocides

References

External links

@arsavium (Jodi Byrd)
on Twitter * {{DEFAULTSORT:Byrd, Jodi Living people 20th-century American women 21st-century American women 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans American academics of English literature American women academics Chickasaw people Native American academics Native American women academics University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty University of Iowa alumni Women's studies academics Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American people 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women