Daniel Heath Justice

Daniel Heath Justice is a Full Professor and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia (UBC), holding positions in the Department of English Languages and Literatures and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. He is enrolled in the Cherokee Nation and works on unceded Musqueam territory. His research focuses on Indigenous cultural and literary studies, Cherokee studies, animal studies, and speculative fiction, emphasizing decolonial frameworks and Indigenous sovereignty. Justice earned a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and previously taught at the University of Toronto.

His key publications include Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History (2006), Why Indigenous Literatures Matter (2018), and Raccoon (2021). Current projects include a revised edition of Our Fire Survives the Storm and a cultural history of the “Cherokee Princess” phenomenon. Justice holds the Order of Canada and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

His research integrates Cherokee kinship, speculative fiction, and other-than-human studies. He advocates for Indigenous sovereignty and accountability in identity claims, as outlined in his Declaration of Indigenous Citizenship and Affiliation. Justice’s creative works, such as the Way of Thorn and Thunder trilogy, explore Indigenous futurisms and decolonial narratives.