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Traci Brynne Voyles

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Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles


Professor and Chair, Women's and Gender Studies

Phone: (405) 325-3481
Email: voyles@ou.edu
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles is Professor and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma (OU), and Affiliate Faculty in the OU Departments of History and Native American Studies. She is a historian of colonialism, race, gender, and environment, with a focus on North America from the nineteenth through the twentieth century. Voyles earned her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California San Diego and completed a Mellon Environments & Societies postdoctoral fellowship in History at the University of California Davis.

Voyles is the author of The Settler Sea: California's Salton Sea and the Consequences of Colonialism (Many Wests book series, University of Nebraska Press, 2021), winner of the 2022 Caughey Prize from the Western History Association for most distinguished work on the American West and a 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. She is also the author of Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) as well as many peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, review essays, and public history projects. Voyles's current book project, Natural Childbirth: An Environmental History, explores the history of natural childbirth in the US, examining ideological and material conditions that shape birth as they have changed over time. 

Voyles' work has been featured in a range of venues, including The NationThe Atlantic, The American Prospect, Boston Review, ARTnews, KCET | PBS  SoCal, and Edge Effects. 

Education:
PhD, University of California San Diego, 2010
MA, University of California San Diego, 2005
BA, University of Colorado Boulder, 2003

Publications

BOOKS

THE SETTLER SEA: CALIFORNIA’S SALTON SEA AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF COLONIALISM. MANY WESTS. LINCOLN: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS, 2021.

  • Winner, 2022 Caughey Prize for Most Distinguished Work on the American West, Western History Association
  • 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

 

WASTELANDING: LEGACIES OF URANIUM MINING IN NAVAJO COUNTRY. MINNEAPOLIS: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 2015. 291 PAGES.

  • Winner, 2016 Southwest Book Award, Border Regional Libraries Association

 

NOT JUST GREEN, NOT JUST WHITE: RACE, JUSTICE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY. CO-EDITED WITH MARY E. MENDOZA. LINCOLN: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS [UNDER CONTRACT]. 

JOURNAL ARTICLES


ESSAYS, INVITED ESSAYS, AND CHAPTERS IN EDITED COLLECTIONS

  • “Man Destroys Nature? Gender, History, and the Feminist Praxis of Situating Sustainabilities.” In Sustainability: Approaches to Environmental Justice and Social Power, edited by Julie Sze, 196–215. New York: New York University Press, 2018. 19 pages.
  • “The Invalid Sea: Disability Studies and Environmental Justice History.” In Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory, edited by Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jay Sibara, 448–73. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. 25 pages.
  • “Intimate Cartographies: Navajo Ecological Citizenship, Soil Conservation, and Livestock Reduction.” In American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship: Thinking and Acting in the Local and Global Commons, edited by Joni Adamson and Kimberly N. Ruffin, 50–63. Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature 15. New York: Routledge, 2013. 13 pages.
  • “Pushed Into the Margins: Native Women and Environment in Settler California.” In Not Just Green, Not Just White: Race, Justice, and Environmental History. Traci Brynne Voyles and Mary E. Mendoza, Eds.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press [under contract].
  • “The Ownership of the Earth: Environmental History and White Settler Supremacy,” In Not Just Green, Not Just White: Race, Justice, and Environmental History. Co-authored with Mary E. Mendoza. Traci Brynne Voyles and Mary E. Mendoza, Eds.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press [under contract].


PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP