Dr. Ashley Glassburn
Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies
Ashley Glassburn is an interdisciplinary scholar with a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies who uses feminist analysis of power and knowledge production to understand the role of historical narrative in shaping Indigenous subjectivity, political rights, and belonging. Glassburn is a member of the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana with whom she serves as a research consultant and Myaamia language educator.
Her book manuscript (in-process) “Settling the Past: Epistemic Violence and the Making of Indigenous Subjectivities” draws on Miami historical narratives and contemporary political projects to explore the dynamics of race, land, and historical evidence in constituting contemporary Indigenous identity. Glassburn approaches the archives through a Miami feminist standpoint, which critically interrogates the relationship of power and knowledge through a distinctively-Miami informed perspective.
As an adult Glassburn became involved in the efforts to recover and revitalize the Miami language in the early 00s. Glassburn was one of several Miami who founded the saakaciweeyankwi summer immersion camp for Miami youth in 2007. Since then she has developed a model for teaching Myaamia grammar, which she is developing into a workbook for Myaamia learners to study remotely. She is also working on a set of essays that bring feminist analysis of gender, power, and knowledge to current trends in the industry of Indigenous language revitalization.
Glassburn serves on the nomination committee of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and was a co-founder of the National Women’s Studies Association Indigenous Peoples Caucus. Glassburn works with a consortium of Women’s and Gender Studies scholars to collect data on how the rise of PhDs in the field is changing the field. Her work within this consortium focuses on how interdisciplinary feminist methods and feminist theory pedagogy continue to shape the field.
Glassburn, like many other members of the Miami Nation are assigned BIA payroll numbers and were named in the 2009 Cobell settlement as “Adult American Indians” even though the Miami Nation of Indiana lost their status as a federally recognized tribal in the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. If you are interested to learn more about the membership status of Dr. Ashley Glassburn or her genealogy, feel free contact the Miami Nation of Indiana or read about the history of the Bondy line in Stewart Rafert’s The Miami Indians of Indiana: a persistent peoples 1654-1994.
Dr. Glassburn teaches upper level courses on Indigenous Feminisms, Feminist Theory, and Women and Protest, as well as the very popular first year course Gal Pals: women and friendship. She regularly has openings for Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants. She is looking for a post-doc or advanced graduate student with training in Algonquian linguistics to assist with her language recovery curriculum. Contact her directly if you would like to learn more about working with her on one of these projects.