Natalie Joy

Current Research

My current book project considers the relationship between Native Americans and abolitionists from 1829 to 1861. I argue that Indians were instrumental in shaping abolitionism, both as participants in antislavery activities and as objects of concern.

This project has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships, including an NEH fellowship at the New-York Historical Society, a long-term fellowship at the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, a Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, an African American Studies Fellowship at the Massachusetts Historical Society, a one-month fellowship at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, a postdoctoral fellowship at the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism at the University of Pennsylvania, an Andrew W. Mellon Short-Term Research Fellowship at the Huntington Library, a Price Visiting Research Fellowship at the Clements Library and a Philips Fund Grant for Native American Research from the American Philosophical Society.

Major Publications

Teaching Interests

Native American history, early American history, social movements.

Courses Taught

  • HIST 260 American History to 1865
  • HIST 360 Early Encounters in Native North America
  • HIST 370 Introduction to American Indian History
  • HIST 395 Historical Methods
  • HIST 464/565: Civil War America

Honors Faculty Fellow (2021-2022)

As an Honors Faculty Fellow, Professor Joy will teach a seminar on Indigenous Illinois in spring 2022 in the University Honors Program. The Honors Faculty Fellowship program identifies faculty eager to teach innovative, exciting seminars of interest to highly-motivated students from across the university.

Contact

Natalie Joy

Natalie Joy
Associate Professor
njoy@niu.edu
Zulauf 708

19th-century U.S., Native American

Ph.D., UCLA, 2008

Office Hours

Tuesday
3:30-5:30 p.m. (in person) and by appointment