Christopher Pexa

Christopher Pexa is an Associate Professor of English at Harvard University, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He holds a BA from Arizona State University, an MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University, and a PhD from Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on Očhéti Šakówiŋ Language and Literature, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and 19th-/20th-century American literature. His work bridges literary analysis with critical Indigenous theory, exploring themes of sovereignty, kinship, and resistance to colonial frameworks.

Recent scholarship includes co-editing Dreaming Our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Artists and Knowledge Keepers (2024) and analyzing Indigenous sovereignty in Sovereign Flows and the Obligation of Repayment (2023). His 2019 monograph Translated Nation examines Dakota kinship systems through literary lenses. Pexa’s articles appear in American Literary History, MELUS, and Studies in American Indian Literatures.

His work engages interdisciplinary topics like Indigenous art practices, environmental justice, and decolonial pedagogy. Pexa has contributed to exhibitions such as Dreaming Our Futures, showcasing Indigenous visual and literary traditions. He is actively involved in revitalizing Očhéti Šakówiŋ language and cultural knowledge through academic and community collaborations.