Associate Professor of World Languages and Cultures
My research combines oral history, ethnography, and archival research to explore the mechanisms Indigenous people use to assert their sovereign relationship with their historical landscape despite the ruptures created by removal, reservations, assimilation, and development. As an Ethnohistorian, I research the employment of cultural and political expressions of social cohesion by Native communities, particularly in response to the pressures of Euro-American encroachment on Native landscapes. In my research, kinship—networks that connect both human and non-human entities to the landscape—emerges as one important mechanism that Native people historically used to assert both cultural identity and political sovereignty in many spheres, including negotiation of political relationships with the United States, resistance to removal from homelands, establishment of reservation boundaries, maintenance of cultural landscapes, and preservation of food systems. Ultimately, recognizing the value placed on social relationships by Native people historically speaks to the broader conversation that both scholars and Native peoples are having today about maintaining political and cultural autonomy in ways that are different from those of the nation-state. My most recent research on food sovereignty reveals how these social relationships not only effect how people work to access specific landscapes, but how they relate to the wider ecosystems that share these landscapes. I am currently exploring the ways that Indigenous corn agriculture, seed breeding, and broader food systems have acted as important mechanisms that Native people have used to assert both cultural identity and political autonomy.
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About Christina Gish Hill
My research combines oral history, ethnography, and archival research to explore the mechanisms Indigenous people use to assert their sovereign relationship with their historical landscape despite the ruptures created by removal, reservations, assimilation, and development. As an Ethnohistorian, I research the employment of cultural and political expressions of social cohesion by Native communities, particularly in response to the pressures of Euro-American encroachment on Native landscapes. In my research, kinship—networks that connect both human and non-human entities to the landscape—emerges as one important mechanism that Native people historically used to assert both cultural identity and political sovereignty in many spheres, including negotiation of political relationships with the United States, resistance to removal from homelands, establishment of reservation boundaries, maintenance of cultural landscapes, and preservation of food systems. Ultimately, recognizing the value placed on social relationships by Native people historically speaks to the broader conversation that both scholars and Native peoples are having today about maintaining political and cultural autonomy in ways that are different from those of the nation-state. My most recent research on food sovereignty reveals how these social relationships not only effect how people work to access specific landscapes, but how they relate to the wider ecosystems that share these landscapes. I am currently exploring the ways that Indigenous corn agriculture, seed breeding, and broader food systems have acted as important mechanisms that Native people have used to assert both cultural identity and political autonomy.
| 2011 - Present | Faculty Member, Iowa State University ‐ American Indian Studies Program | |
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| 2011 - Present | Faculty Member, Iowa State University ‐ Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture | |
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| 2011 - Present | Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Iowa State University ‐ Department of World Languages and Cultures | |
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| 2009 - 2011 | Lecturer in Anthropology and American Indian Studies, Iowa State University ‐ Department of Anthropology | |
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| 2008 - 2009 | Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology, William & Mary | |
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| 2007 - 2008 | Visiting Assistant Professor in American Studies, Wesleyan University | |
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| 2006 - 2007 | Instructor in Anthropology, Cloud College | |
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Disciplines
Research Interests
| 2008 | PhD, American Studies, University of Minnesota | |
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| 1998 | BA, Anthropology, University of Chicago | |
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Links
Contact Information
2232 Pearson
505 Morrill Rd
Ames, IA 50011-2103
Phone: 515-294-0101
Email: