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Indiana University Bloomington
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Department of American Studies College of Arts and Sciences
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Christina Snyder « Committee on NAIS

Picture of Christina Snyder

Assistant Professor
American Studies
Department of History

Office: Ballantine Hall 828
Phone: (812) 855-2287
E-mail: snyderch at indiana.edu
Website

Profile

As an undergrad at the University of Georgia, I studied the archaeology of the Southeastern United States and participated in lab and field work on Native American sites. My interest in Native studies led me to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Trained as an ethnohistorian, I focused on Native American and early American history and completed a second field in anthropology. After I earned my Ph.D. in 2007, I spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Pennsylvania. Here at Indiana, I teach in the departments of History and American Studies and offer several courses on Native American history and culture.  

My research focuses on Native peoples of the American South. In my current book project, Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground: Native Americans and Bondage in the Early South, I use the lens of captivity to explore how Native peoples in the South understood themselves, their white and black neighbors, and the region they called home. Ongoing research interests include Mississippian archaeology, Southern identity, and Native Americans in the post-Removal South.

Relevant Courses

  • History A310: Introduction to Native American History
  • HistoryA300: Native American Women
  • AMST A275: Native American and Indigenous Cultures
  • AMST G605: Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies

Publication Highlights

Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010).

"Conquered Enemies, Adopted Kin, and Owned People: The Creek Indians and Their Captives," Journal of Southern History 73 (2007): 255-288.

"The Lady of Cofitachequi: Gender and Political Power among Native Southerners."  In South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, eds. Joan Johnson, Valinda Littlefield, and Marjorie Spruill. University of Georgia Press, 2009.