Current Research
Painting Native America: Indigenous Artists in the 20th Century (book manuscript, currently under review)
This project focuses on three generations of Indigenous artists as they sought to make a place for Native art in both North American culture and society and the broader art world. While grounded in my training as a historian, it is located at the intersection of history and art history and within the context of Indigenous Studies. Framed by concepts such as survivance and visual sovereignty, this project tells the story of Indigenous artists and their experiences negotiating such questions as how to use art for social and political goals, what constitutes “Indian art,” and how to make a living as artists, showing how each generation’s approach to these issues was shaped by previous struggles. Overall, I argue that Indigenous artists have used their art to rewrite dominant narratives of North American history, foregrounding Native perspectives while indigenizing the art world.
Major Research Support
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend Award, 2024
Loyola Marymount University, Faith and Justice Research Grant, 2018
Loyola Marymount University, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Faculty Research Account, 2017-18
Loyola Marymount University, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Summer Research Award, 2016
UCLA Institute of American Cultures & American Indian Studies Center, Visiting Researcher Fellowship, 2014-15
Loyola Marymount University, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Summer Research Award, 2014
Foundation for the National Archives and National Archives and Records Administration, San Francisco, National Archives Regional Residency Fellowship, 2013-14
Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young University, John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Off-Campus Faculty Research Award, 2013-14
Publications
"Indigenizing Urban Landscapes: Northwest Coast Artists and Cities in the Late Twentieth Century," Journal of Urban History 48:1 (January 2022), 142-62.
"Painting Native America in Public: American Indian Artists and the New Deal," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 42:3 (2018) [published Summer 2019].
"Rewriting the Narrative: American Indian Artists in California, 1960s-1980s," Western Historical Quarterly 49:4 (Winter 2018), 409-36.
Reprinted in California History, Special Issue on California Native History, 96:04 (November/December 2019), 54-77.
Adapted into “A Critical Site: American Indian Art in California,” in Frank LaPena, et al., eds., When I Remember I See Red: American Indian Art and Activism in California [exhibition catalog] (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019).
Presentations
“Blowing the Art World Open: T.C. Cannon and the New Indian Art,” Western History Association, Los Angeles, October 2023.
“Painting Home: Indigenous and Japanese American Artists and their Responses to Alienation and Expulsion,” Western History Association, Los Angeles, October 2023.
“Prying the Art World Open: Oscar Howe in the 1950s,” for “Breaking the Chains: the Legacy of Oscar Howe” (symposium), Portland Art Museum (Ore.), April 2023.
"Prying the Art World Open: Oscar Howe, Pablita Velarde, and the Philbrook Indian Annual in the 1950s," Western History Association, Albuquerque [online], October 2020.
"Indigenizing Urban Landscapes: Northwest Coast Artists and Cities in the late 20th Century," Native American Art Studies Association, Minneapolis, October 2019.
"Indigenizing Urban Landscapes: Native Northwest Coast Artists and Cities in the late 20th Century," Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Los Angeles, May 2018.
"Painting Native America: American Indian Art and California in the Twentieth Century," Opening Program for "When I Remember I See Red: California Native American Contemporary Art," San Francisco State University, Fine Arts Gallery, September 2016.
"Painting Native America: Oscar Howe and the New Deal," Native American Art Studies Association, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 2015.
"Painting Native America: American Indian Artists in the Twentieth Century," 26th Annual Oscar Howe Memorial Lecture, University of South Dakota, September 2015.
"Painting a Cultural Resurgence: Northern California Indian Artists in the 1960s and 1970s," UCLA American Indian Studies Brown Bag Consortium, April 2015.
"Painting a Cultural Resurgence: Northern California Indian Artists in the 1960s and 1970s," Annual Art History Symposium, Sacramento State University, April 2015.
“Painting Native America: American Indian Artists in the Early Twentieth Century,” University of Tulsa, November 2014.
“Tonita Peña and Pablita Velarde: American Indian Artists Crossing Borders,” Western History Association, Newport Beach, CA, October 2014.
"Illustrating Native America: American Indian Artists in the New Deal Era," American Society for Ethnohistory Conference, New Orleans, September 2013.
“Writing Indians Off the Reservation: Re-conceptualizing Early Twentieth-Century American Indian History,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Sacramento, Calif., June 2011.