Harvard Hires First Professor of Native American History

Harvard’s first-ever tenured professor in Native American studies, History professor Philip J. Deloria, began teaching last month, after years of activists calling for Native American studies offerings.

Deloria’s appointment is the culmination of an effort by the Harvard University Native American Program that has been going on “since the mid-2000s,” according to Executive Director Shelly C. Lowe. Deloria, who is Native American himself, has been working with HUNAP, the University’s main organization for Native American students and faculty, since 2004.

“Phil Deloria is the leading—I was gonna say one of the leading, but he’s really the best —historian of Native Americans active today,” History Department Chair Daniel L. Smail. “We were just really lucky.”

Deloria has been at the University of Michigan’s American Studies department since 2001, but said he is excited to join the “really smart, excellent people” in Harvard’s History department.

“Internally, in terms of Harvard, there’s so many great things happening here. The museums, the libraries, the resources are tremendous for the study of Native Americans and Native American history,” Deloria said.

“To the extent that I can jump into a conversation and advance that conversation, make things more legible and coherent as far as the field, that would be great,” he added. ...