This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. The online version of this event will be live captioned. Please register below.
This generative conversation between Jodi Byrd and Daniel Heath Justice will interrogate historical records of Allotment Era citizenship cases and their ongoing implications related to Native citizenship and belonging. Their discussion will foreground the continued consequences of removal and allotment within and beyond the political landscape of Indian Country, from the intellectual genealogies of "pretendianism" to recent legal contests over jurisdiction.
Speakers
Jodi Byrd is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and Professor of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Their research focuses on indigenous studies, indigenous feminist and queer studies, and video game studies.
Their 2011 book The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism (University of Minnesota Press) won the 2011 Best First Book of the Year award from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, and the 2012 Wordcraft Circle Award for Academic Work of the Year. Byrd also co-edits the Northwestern University Press’ Critical Insurgencies series. Most recently, they authored Indigenomicon: American Indians, Video Games, and the Structures of Dispossession (Duke University Press, 2025).
Prior to joining the University of Chicago, they were a Professor of Literatures in English at Cornell University. Byrd earned their PhD in English Literature from the University of Iowa in 2002.
Daniel Heath Justice is a Colorado-born enrolled citizen of Cherokee Nation/ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ and a Spears, Foreman, and Riley citizen descendant. He is Full Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia on unceded Musqueam territory, where he also holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Textual Sovereignties. His most recent book is the twentieth anniversary, fully updated edition of Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History, Citizenship and Sovereignty Edition (University of Minnesota Press, 2026). His scholarly and creative works engage concerns and intersections of Cherokee and Five Tribes studies, critical Indigenous studies, Indigenous literary studies, cultural history, and critical genealogical studies. His current projects include a full-length literary biography of Cherokee historian and genealogist Emmet Starr (co-authored with fellow Cherokee Nation scholar Jacquelyn Sparks), a young adult fantasy novel, and further research on Indian Territory allotment-era logics and legacies in false Five Tribes claimant narratives.
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Registration opens September 1.
In-Person RegistrationSupport the Newberry
Your generosity is vital in keeping the library’s programs, exhibitions, and reading rooms free and accessible to everyone.
Make a GiftPast Public Programs
Check out video recordings of past Newberry public programs on our YouTube channel.
Watch