Professor Furlan holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in English from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her work has appeared in Crossing Lines: Race and Mixed Race across the Geohistorical Divide (2003), a volume that she co-edited, Studies in American Indian Literatures, Yellow Medicine Review, and Sentence. She is currently at work on a book project that examines contemporary representations of urban American Indians and is working on a Special Forum for the Journal of Transnational American Studies that focuses on transnational Native American Studies.
Her teaching interests include American Indian literary and cultural studies, American ethnic literatures, American Studies, autobiography, mixed-race studies, gender studies, and creative nonfiction.