Biography
Doug Kiel (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2012) is a citizen of the Oneida Nation and studies Indigenous histories and settler colonialism, primarily in the American Midwest, with an emphasis on law and policy. Their first book, Unsettling Territory: Oneida Nation Resurgence and Anti-Sovereignty Backlash, is forthcoming from Yale University Press.
Kiel is a recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s New Directions Fellowship (2025–2027) and is currently working on a book entitled Power over the Land: Race, Colonialism, and the American Midwest, which examines the Midwest as a battleground where settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and industrial transformation collide with grassroots struggles for sovereignty and liberation. Kiel is also in the early stages of research for The Outer Space of America: Manifest Destiny and the Cosmic Frontier.
Kiel’s work in museums has included co-curating Indigenous Chicago at the Newberry Library (September 2024 to January 2025), and Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories, a permanent exhibition at the Field Museum that opened in 2022. Additionally, they serve on the scholarly advisory committee for the new Wisconsin History Center, opening in 2026. As an advocate, Kiel has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, submitted an expert witness report in regards to Oneida Nation v. Village of Hobart (2020), and currently serves on the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission.
