Christina Snyder: American Studies Program: Indiana University Bloomington

Assistant Professor, Program in American Studies
Assistant Professor, Department of History

Office:
Phone:
E-mail: snyderch indiana.edu

Education

Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007
A.B. University of Georgia

Research Interests

Native North America; Early America; The American South; Histories of Race, Captivity, and Slavery.

Personal Statement

My research focuses on identity, race, and the intersection of Native American and Southern history. In my current book project, Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground: Native Americans and Bondage in the Early South, I use the lens of captivity to explore changing notions of identity among Native Americans of the South. Warfare and its concomitant captive-taking reveals much about identity because it forced peoples to define themselves during crucial historical moments. I trace the dynamic institution of captivity from roughly A.D. 1000, when Native chiefdoms competed for regional power, through the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842, which marks the final captive-taking episode in the contested American South. In Southern history, American Indians often emerge only as bit actors in the teleological tale of a biracial region; this book attempts to restore Native peoples to their proper role as central actors in the region’s history. More broadly, Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground addresses the construction of race and racism and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the diversity of bondage in the Americas.

Courses Recently Taught

Undergraduate:

Introduction to Native American History
Native American and Indigenous Cultures
Native American Women

Graduate:

Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies

Publication Highlights

Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground: Native Americans and Bondage in the Early South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, under contract) .

"Conquered Enemies, Adopted Kin, and Owned People: The Creek Indians and Their Captives," Journal of Southern History 73 (2007): 255-288 .

"The Lady of Cofitachequi: Gender and Political Power among Native Southerners." In South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, eds. Joan Johnson, Valinda Littlefield, and Marjorie Spruill. University of Georgia Press, 2009.

Honors and Awards