Christina Snyder

• Assistant Professor, Department of History
• Assistant Professor, American Studies

Education

• A.B. at University of Georgia
• Ph.D. at University of North Carolina

Contact Information

Ballantine Hall, Rm. 828

(812) 855-2287

Background

My research focuses on identity, race, and the intersection of Native American and Southern history. In my current book project, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America, I use the lens of captivity to explore changing notions of identity among Native Americans of the South. Warfare and its concomitant captive-taking reveals much about identity because it forced peoples to define themselves during crucial historical moments. I trace the dynamic institution of captivity from roughly A.D. 1000, when Native chiefdoms competed for regional power, through the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842, which marks the final captive-taking episode in the contested American South. In Southern history, American Indians often emerge only as bit actors in the teleological tale of a biracial region; this book attempts to restore Native peoples to their proper role as central actors in the region’s history. More broadly, Slavery in Indian Country addresses the construction of race and racism and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the diversity of bondage in the Americas.

Selected Awards

• Barra Postdoctoral Fellow, McNeil Center for Early American Studies,
        2007-09.
• Royster Fellow, UNC, 2006-07.
• Phillips Fellow, American Philosophical Society, 2006.

Research Interests

• Native American
• Early American
• American South

Courses Recently Taught

Undergraduate:

• Introduction to Native American History
• Native American and Indigenous Cultures
• Native American Women

Graduate:

• 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.