Jenny L. Davis

Jenny L. Davis is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Anthropology, American Indian Studies Program, and Gender and Women's Studies. As a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, her work focuses on Indigenous language futurism, Queer Indigenous Studies, and decolonizing research ethics.

Her research has been published in leading journals including:

• Annual Review of Anthropology
• American Anthropologist
• Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

Award-winning author of Talking Indian (2018) and co-editor of Queer Excursions (2014), she has received:

• Beatrice Medicine Award (2019)
• Ruth Benedict Book Prize (2014)
• Dynamic Woman of the Year - Chickasaw Nation (2021)

She leads the NAGPRA & Ethics course, co-chairs the campus NAGPRA Advisory Committee, and directs the Native American and Indigenous Languages (NAIL) Lab, focusing on:

• Language reclamation technologies
• Indigenous community partnerships
• Anti-colonial research frameworks