Kathryn Walkiewicz

Kathryn Walkiewicz is Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego, and Faculty Director of the Indigenous Futures Institute (IFI). An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she uses she/they pronouns and specializes in Native American and Indigenous studies, print culture, early American literature, and speculative fiction.

• Ph.D. in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014
• Graduate Minor in American Indian Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014
• M.A. in English, University of New Mexico, 2007
• Graduate Certificate, Women’s Studies, University of New Mexico, 2007
• B.A. in English and Art History, Kenyon College, 2003

Her research explores the intersections of Indigenous and Black resistance, settler colonial state formation, and speculative narratives in American literature. She investigates how print culture, maps, and visual media were used to assert federalism and statehood while erasing Indigenous and Black territorial relations. Her work centers Cherokee and other Native epistemologies and emphasizes continuity, survival, and futurity through speculative and horror genres.

Her recent publications reveal a strong thematic focus on Indigenous sovereignty, language revitalization, and the politics of territory. She examines how speculative fiction becomes a tool for imagining decolonial futures, as seen in her analyses of Cherokee futurism and werewolf metaphors in Native literature. Her scholarship spans archival print culture, digital humanities, and contemporary Indigenous media.

Scientific Awards:

• Honorable Mention, 2024 Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize, American Studies Association

Walkiewicz has advised collaborative digital humanities projects and co-authored transcriptions of historical print materials. She leads the Indigenous Futures Institute, fostering interdisciplinary research on Indigenous knowledge, technology, and storytelling. Her work bridges academic scholarship with community engagement, particularly in language preservation and digital archiving initiatives.

She is involved in the Ojibwe Muzzeniegun Digital Edition Project, a collaborative effort supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, reflecting her commitment to community-centered and decolonial research practices.