About
Kristen Oertel, Ph.D., teaches classes on the Civil War and Reconstruction, African American history and the history of race, gender and sexuality in early America. She also serves as associate director of the Helmerich Center for American Research, the archival arm of the Gilcrease Museum, which houses tens of thousands of rare books, manuscripts and maps that chronicle the history of the Americas.
Oertel’s first book, “Bleeding Borders,” examines how Native Americans, African Americans and women shaped the conflict over slavery on the Kansas-Missouri border before the Civil War. Oertel’s most recent book is “Seeking Freedom in Indian Country: Slavery, Sovereignty, and Resistance Within the Five Tribes, 1790-1861,” and is the first comprehensive history of slavery in Indian Territory. Oertel argues that the causes of the Civil War must include Indigenous peoples and their land, and the book integrates Indian Territory into the narrative of the Civil War.
Awards & Honors
- Linda Lacey Award for Mentoring Excellence, 2023
- Initiatives Grant, NEH, 2023
- Outstanding Teacher Award, The University of Tulsa, 2022
- Medicine Wheel Award, The University of Tulsa, 2016
- Armitage-Jameson Book Prize, The Council of Western Women’s Historians, 2011
Education
- Ph.D., University of Texas
- M.A., SUNY-Binghamton
- B.A., Cornell College
Research Interests & Areas of Expertise
- History of slavery and abolition
- Civil war and reconstruction
- Sexuality
