Deena Marie Rymhs

Deena Marie Rymhs is a Professor in the American Indian Studies Program, English Department, and Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on Indigenous literatures, prison writing, and modernist aesthetics.

She holds interdisciplinary appointments spanning literary studies, environmental humanities, and critical theory. Recent work explores intersections of Indigenous material ecocriticism and posthumanism through analyses of contemporary Indigenous art and literature.

Notable grants include SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2006-2009), SSHRC Insight Grant (2013-2016), and Humanities Research Institute Fellowship (2022-2023). Recognized for pedagogical excellence with multiple 'Teachers Ranked Excellent' awards.

Her 2019 monograph Roads, Mobility, and Violence examines infrastructural violence in Indigenous contexts. Current research projects include decolonial critiques of modernist aesthetics and transnational Indigenous solidarity movements.