Melissa Otis
Contract Instructor and Postdoctoral Fellow (ICSLAC)
| Degrees: | B.A. (SUNY at Plattsburgh), Ph.D. (Toronto) |
| Email: | melissa.otis@carleton.ca |
Carleton University:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2017
Institute for the Comparative Studies of Literature, Art, and Culture
Course Instructor 2017, History Department
Course Instructor 2016, Indigenous and Canadian Studies
Education:
Ph.D. – History of Education
University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor St., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6 (2013)
Dissertation: “At Home in the Adirondacks: A Regional History of Indigenous and European Interactions, 1776 – 1920”.
BA – American History with a concentration in Canadian Studies
State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY
Refereed Publications:
Articles in Scholarly Journals
2017
- Forthcoming/accepted: “From Iroquoia to Broadway: The Careers of Carrie A. Mohawk and Esther Deer,” Iroquoia (Fall 2017)
2014
- “Disentangling the ‘Native’ Guide: Indigenous and Euroamerican Guides of the Adirondacks, 1840 – 1920,” Cultural and Social History 11:4 (2014): 555-574.
2013
- “Location of Exchange: Algonquian and Iroquoian Occupation in the Adirondacks Before and After Contact,” Environment, Space, Place 5:2 (Fall 2013): 7-34.
In progress:
- Book manuscript reviewed and accepted by Syracuse University Press,Location of Exchange: A History of Iroquoian and Algonquian Survivance in the Adirondacks
Research Interests:
- History of Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples of the northeast during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- History education
- Material Culture, especially its use as historical primary documents
- Ethnohistorical research methodology
- American and Canadian History, especially the long 19th Century
Current Research:
History of Iroquoian and Algonquian performers in and around New York City, c. 1870 – 1940. I am looking especially at performers on the stage, in early films, lecturers, and artist models.
Selected Awards:
- National Endowment for the Humanities, 2017 Summer Institute American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York.
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, Carleton University (2015-2017).
- University of Toronto Doctoral Completion Award (2010-2011).
- University of Toronto Guaranteed Funding (2006-2010).