Amanda Cobb-Greetham (Chickasaw), a professor of Native American Studies in the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, has been named a 2021–2022 fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, joining an extraordinary group of artists, scientists, scholars and practitioners who will learn from and inspire one another in a year of discovery and interdisciplinary exchange.
As a 2021-2022 Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow, Cobb-Greetham will pursue an individual project in a community dedicated to exploration and inquiry. Cobb-Greetham’s project, Bright, Golden Haze: Oklahoma/Indian Identity in Myth and Memory, a collection of interrelated essays, will interrogate Oklahoma/Indian myth and memory. The work places Oklahoma history and mythology at the center of the American story, turning on the perceived fulfillment of manifest destiny and the “conquering” of Native peoples. Cobb-Greetham will focus specifically on the contestation of cultural erasure through the production of tribal-specific counter-narratives. The collection will include memoir and critical analysis, archival documents and contemporary cultural texts, and a synthesized, interdisciplinary approach throughout to illustrate the impact of myth and memory on tribal sovereignty and Native lived experience.
“The 2021–2022 fellowship cohort is characterized by intellectual reach, excellence in scholarship and creativity,” said Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, who is also the Daniel P. S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and a professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “Many of them are also focused on the most urgent problems of the day. In the wake of an unprecedented – and profoundly difficult – 14 months, the challenges facing our society are daunting. Some of these challenges are new, others are merely new to the spotlight – deep and longstanding issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and its far-reaching consequences. Our newest class of fellows will reckon with this moment and its meaning, and they will push the limits of knowledge and practice across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. We cannot wait to welcome them.”
The acceptance rate for the class, which represents nine countries, was 2.4%, from 1,383 applications.
From 2014-2019, Cobb-Greetham served as the chair of the Department of Native American Studies. During her tenure at OU, her efforts have contributed to the growth and prioritization of Native American studies and the establishment of the recently endowed OU Native Nations Center, for which she served as founding director.
She has received significant recognition for her scholarship, winning the American Book Award for Listening to Our Grandmothers’ Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females. In addition, she is the co-editor of The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations with Amy Lonetree. She has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and served for nine years as the editor of American Indian Quarterly, a foremost journal of Native American studies.
From 2007 to 2012, Cobb-Greetham served her tribe, the Chickasaw Nation, as the administrator of the Division of History and Culture. During her tenure, she was instrumental in launching the state-of-the-art Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma, and directed the museums, archives and language programs, as well as the Chickasaw Press. The Chickasaw Press, the first tribal publishing house of its kind, received the Harvard Award for Excellence in Tribal Self-Governance under her guidance. In 2018, she received the Chickasaw Nation’s prestigious Dynamic Woman Award.
Cobb-Greetham serves on the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and was vice chair for a two-year term. She also serves on the Board of Governors for Honoring Nations, an initiative of the Harvard Project for American Indian Economic Development. She has contributed to the development of the First American Museum in Oklahoma City as a Knowledge Giver, and is the founding president of The Auntie Project, Native Women of Service, a 501 (c) 3, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Native American and Indigenous children in need.
“After many years of administrative efforts focused on creating Native American institutions at OU and elsewhere, I am looking forward to a time of dedicated research and reflection – a time of creating research that helps us better understand the perseverance and continuance of Native nations in this specific place,” said Cobb-Greetham.
The full list of fellows is online here.
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About the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University
Harvard Radcliffe Institute is a unique space within Harvard – a school dedicated to creating and sharing transformative ideas across all disciplines. Each year, the Institute hosts leading scholars, scientists and artists from around the world in its renowned residential fellowship program. Radcliffe fosters innovative research collaborations and offers hundreds of public lectures, exhibitions, performances, conferences and other events annually. The Institute is home to the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, the nation’s foremost archive on the history of women, gender and sexuality. For more information about the people and programs of the Radcliffe Institute, visit www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.
