Kirby Brown

Academic Interests: American Indian literatures, cultures, and histories; American Indian Sovereignty and Self-Determination; American Indian Representation in Popular Culture; Indigenous Studies; American and American Indian Identity; Nationalism and Separatism; American literature and history

Current research project(s):  “Cherokee Nationalism and Cherokee Community: Potentials and Pitfalls of Culturalist Readings of Native Texts,” to be published in forthcoming collection Sovereignty, Separatism, and Survivance: Ideological Encounters in the Literature of Native North America by Cambridge Scholars Press (2008); “Looking Back, Looking Forward: Refiguring Tradition in John Milton Oskison’s Singing Bird and D’Arcy McNickle’s Runner in the Sun”; Dissertation Research: An Idea of Ourselves: Separatism and Survivance in American Indian Literature

Publications: “Cherokee Nationalism and Cherokee Community: Potentials and Pitfalls of Culturalist Readings of Native Texts,” to be published in forthcoming collection Sovereignty, Separatism, and Survivance: Ideological Encounters in the Literature of Native North America by Cambridge Scholars Press (2008)

Conference Presentations: “Rhetorical Sovereignty: Indigenizing the Author Function,” 2006 SW/TX PCA/ACA, Albuquerque, NM; “It Matters Who Speaks: Sovereignty, Authenticity, and Appropriation in Indian Country,” International Conference on Narrative, Washington, DC, 2007; “Remembering Selu: Decolonizing and Reconstructing Cherokee Femininity,” NEMLA, Baltimore, MD 2007 and SWTX PCA/ACA 2007

Hometown: Coahoma, TX, USA

Previous degrees: BA in Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1997; MA English, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2005

Current Hobbies: Butchering the guitar, ruining nice afternoon walks by chasing a little white ball around, pretending I’m a home improvement wizard, chasing my dog around the planet, and humbling myself in the garden.

Favorite Authors: Leslie Silko, Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Winona LaDuke, D’Arcy McNickle, Vine Deloria, Jr., Robert Warrior, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Jace Weaver, Craig Womack, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldúa

Ultimate Vacation: What is this word, “vacation?” Please explain.

Email: kirby.brown@utsa.edu