About
Julie L. Reed is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She recently joined the history and anthropology departments at The University of Tulsa. Reed’s second book, “Land, Language, and Women: A Cherokee and American Educational History” (UNC Press January 2026), examines 400 years of Cherokee educational history using archaeology, ethnography, mission records, the Cherokee Nation’s archives and family history. Her first book, “Serving the Nation” (University of Oklahoma, 2016), traced the development and implementation of Cherokee social welfare institutions. She is currently at work on her third book, co-authored with historian Rose Stremlau, “Sovereign Kin: A History of the Cherokee Nation.” Reed is on research leave until the fall of 2026.
Awards and honors
- Mellon Foundation, Mellon New Directions Award, 2024-26
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Collaborative Research Grant, 2022-25
- American Academy of Education/Spencer Research Communications Grant, 2022-23
- Article Prize, 2020
- Patty Jo Watson Award, Southeastern Archaeological Conference for “Talking Stones: Cherokee Syllabary in Manitou Cave, Alabama.” Antiquity 93, no. 368
(April 2019): 519–36. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.15. - American Academy of Education/Spencer Small Research Grant, Spencer Foundation, 2019
Education
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- M.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- MTS, SMU Perkins School of Theology
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Cherokee history
- Indian Territory
- Native South
- Western Native America
- 19th-century United States history
- American social welfare
- Educational history
