Research Interest

Indigenous Rights, Human Rights, Gender, Sovereignity, Neoliberalism, Violence, Indigenous Migration, Activist Research

Biography

Shannon Speed is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. She is the Paula Gunn Allen Chair and Professor of American Indian Studies, Gender Studies, and Anthropology at UCLA, where she also serves as Director of the American Indian Studies Center and Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs. Dr. Speed has worked for three decades in Mexico and the United States on issues of Indigenous rights, gender, neoliberalism, violence, migration, and activist research. Her books include the award-winning Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler Capitalist State (UNC Press 2020) and the co-edited volume with Dr. Lynn Stephen, Heightened States of Injustice: Activist Research on Indigenous Women and Violence (University of Arizona Press 2021). She is currently working on a new book with her own tribal nation entitled, “Chickasaw Spring: Law and Resurgent Sovereignty in a Native Nation.” She is a recipient of the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Chickasaw Dynamic Woman of the Year award from the Chickasaw Nation. She served as the President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) from 2018 to 2021. Dr. Speed is active in her tribe’s language revitalization program as a learner and teacher, and serves as a board member of Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO) and on the leadership circle of the Indigenous Education Now Coalition (IEN) in Los Angeles.

Publications

• 2020 “On the Persistence of White Supremacy: Structuring Logics of the Settler Capitalist State,” American Anthropologist, special issue edited by Aisha Beliso-De Jesus and Jemima Pierre.
• 2017 “Structures of Settler Capitalism in Abya Yala,” American Quarterly, special issue edited by Bianet Castellanos. Vol. 69(4): 783-790.
• 2021 “Grief and an Indigenous Feminist’s Rage: The Embodied Field of Knowledge Production,” Heightened States of (In)justice: Activist Research on Indigenous Women and Violence, Lynn Stephen and Shannon Speed, eds. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Awards

• 2023 Paula Gunn Allen Chair, Gender Studies, UCLA
• 2023 UCLA Marty Sklar My Last Lecture Award (student-voted award for “most inspiring professor”)
• 2021 President’s Award, American Anthropology Association
• 2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book Award for Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler Capitalist State (UNC Press, 2019)
• 2020 Best Subsequent Book Award, Native American Studies Association (NAISA), for Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler Capitalist State (UNC Press, 2019)
• 2018 Research Excellence Award, Dean of Social Science and Center for the Study of Women, $3000
• 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award, State Bar of Texas American Indian Law Section
• 2014 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year Award, Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma
• 2011-12 Tower Award for Outstanding Service Learning Professor, University of Texas at Austin
• 2010-11 Tower Award for Outstanding Service Learning Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Projects

• Chickasaw Spring: Resurgent Sovereignty in a Native Nation