Jean O'Brien

612-624-5794

History

1014 Heller Hall

271 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Collegiate Affiliation

History

Educational Background & Specialties

Open Close

Educational Background

Ph.D.: History, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1990 - none

Specialties

State and Federal Recognition
Native American and Indigenous Studies
U.S. colonial history
Settler Colonialism

Publications

Open Close

Publications

Why You Can't Teach U.S. History without Indians. University of North Carolina Press, O'Brien, Jean, 2015.
What is a Monument to Massasoit Doing in Kansas City? The Memory Work of Monuments and Place in Public Displays of History: O'Brien, Jean, Ethnohistory, 61, 635-53, 2014.
Recognition and Rebuilding: Routledge, O'Brien, Jean, The World of the Indigenous Americas, 2014.
Building a Professional Infrastructure for Critical Indigenous Studies: A History and Prospectus for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association: O'Brien, Jean, Critical Indigenous Studies in the First World, 2015.
"'Our old and valuable liberty': A Natick Indian Petition in Defense of their Fishing Rights, 1748". Kristina Bross and Hilary Wyss, eds., Early Native Literacies in New England: A Documentary and Critical Anthology, O'Brien, Jean, 2008.
Sources and Methods in Indigenous Studies. Chris Andersen, Routledge, O'Brien, Jean, 2017.
Memory and Mobility: Grandma's Mahnomen, White Earth: O'Brien, Jean, Ethnohistory, 64, 345-77, 2017.
Tracing Settler Colonialism's Eliminatory Logic in Patrick Wolfe's Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race: O'Brien, Jean, American Quarterly, 69, 249-55, 2017.
Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit. Lisa Blee, University of North Carolina Press, O'Brien, Jean, 2019.
Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England. University of Minnesota Press, O'Brien, Jean, 2010.
Recognition, Sovereignty Struggles and Indigenous Rights in the United States: A Sourcebook. University of North Carolina Press, O'Brien, Jean, April 2013.

Activities

Open Close

Activities

Professional

Editorial Collective: Reviews in American History. 2019 -
Northrop Professor 2019 -
American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Program Co-Chair. 2015 - 2016
American Studies Association annual meeting: Program committee member. 2014 - 2016
Cobell Education Scholarship Fund Board of Trustees: Appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. 2014 -
Critical Indigeneities: Book series co-editor. 2014 -
Native American and Indigenous Studies: Journal, founding co-editor, Minnesota Press. 2013 -
President, American Society for Ethnohistory 2012 - 2013
American Historical Association: Program Committee member. 2011 - 2012
Native Americans of the Northeast: Book series co-editor, University of Massachusetts Press. 2007 -
Advisory Board: Five-part series on American Indian history, "We Shall Remain," PBS American Experience. 2005 - 2008
National Council: American Studies Association. 2003 - 2006
Co-founder and past president, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association

Research

Public History Project: • Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice, Humanities Action Lab .
Co-edited volume: Allotment Stories: Narrating Indigenous Land Relations Under Settler Siege.
Book project: Memory and Mobility: Grandma’s Mahnomen, White Earth.

Awards

Open Close

Awards

McKnight Land Grant Professorship, 1992 - none

American Association of University Women's Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars, 1996 - none

Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award in the Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, 2014

University of Minnesota Imagine Fund Award, 2014

Board of Trustees, Newberry Library, 2018-

Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education, 2006 - none

Member, American Antiquarian Society, 2000 - none

Member, Academy of Distinguished Teachers, University of Minnesota, 2006 - none

American Indian History, Lifetime Achievement Award, Western History Association, 2014

Best Subsequent Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association for Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010). Awarded ...

McKnight Distinguished University Professor, 2015

College of Liberal Arts Dean's Medal, University of Minnesota, 2018

Elected Member, Society of American Historians, 2016

Best New Journal Award, Council of Editors of Learned Journals, for Native American and Indigenous Studies, 2016

Courses Taught

Open Close