Kirstin Squint

Kirstin Squint serves as Professor in the English Department at East Carolina University, specializing in Native American literatures of the U.S. Southeast. Her distinguished career includes the Whichard Visiting Distinguished Professorship in Humanities (2019-2022) and prior appointments at High Point University, Southern University-Baton Rouge, and Louisiana State University.

Her educational background spans a BA from Eureka College, MA from Miami University, and PhD from Louisiana State University. Research focuses on Indigenous literary traditions with interdisciplinary connections to ecocriticism and gender studies.

Scholarly output reveals consistent engagement with Native American sovereignty, Southern environmental narratives, and multi-ethnic literary intersections. Her publications demonstrate evolving emphasis from Appalachian identity studies toward climate justice frameworks within Indigenous ecocriticism, particularly examining Gulf Coast and Southeastern tribal communities.

• ECU Scholar-Teacher Award (2024)
• American Book Award for criticism (2020)
• Weatherford Award for nonfiction (2019)
• CELJ Award for Public Intellectual Special Issue (2023)

As faculty in ECU's PhD program in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication, she mentors doctoral candidates while teaching graduate seminars on Native American literatures and multi-ethnic writing. Her editorial work with North Carolina Literary Review and collaborative projects like Swamp Souths demonstrate significant contributions to regional literary scholarship.