Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellow, Yale University
Scholar in Residence, Advance Native Political Leadership
My name is Natalie Jones-Kerwin (she/her), and I am a citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Writing Fellow at Yale University, and a Scholar in Residence with Advance Native Political Leadership.
My research examines political identity and democratic participation; democratic representation, political candidacy, and leadership; and Indigenous governance and public policy. Across these areas, I ask how relationships among individuals, political communities, institutions, and systems of governance cultivate political identities and civic capacities, create opportunities and barriers to political engagement, and shape democratic participation, representation, policy, and governance. I examine these questions through Native American politics, using Indigenous political life as a lens for developing broader theories of political behavior, American politics, and democratic governance.
My dissertation, Citizens of Two Sovereigns: Native American Identity and Political Behavior, develops a relational theory of political identity and examines how identity shapes political participation across Tribal, state, and federal political systems. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and original survey research with Native communities in Wisconsin and across the United States, I show how relationships with political communities, institutions, lands, and collective responsibilities cultivate distinct dimensions of political identity and shape participation across overlapping sovereigns.
My broader research extends this agenda to Native political representation and leadership, Indigenous governance and research governance, Native electoral behavior, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Across these projects, I combine qualitative and quantitative methods with community-engaged and Indigenous approaches to research.
Beyond my research, I am committed to teaching, mentorship, and strengthening Indigenous academic and community institutions. I have worked extensively with Native students and communities through the Network for Development and Growth of Native Solidarity (NDGNS), the Indigenous Graduate Student Organization at UW–Madison, and other community organizations.