Research/Areas of Interest:
Black studies; Native American and Indigenous studies; Afro-Native studies; women, gender, and sexuality studies; social history; and geography.
Education
- BA, Wheelock College, Boston, United States, 2014
- PhD, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 2023
Biography
Mary Amanda McNeil (she/her/hers) is a Mellon Assistant Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. Her research and teaching sit at the intersections of Black studies; Native American and Indigenous studies; Afro-Native studies; women, gender, and sexuality studies; social history; and geography. McNeil completed her PhD in American studies at Harvard University. Her dissertation, which examines the spatial imaginaries of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous political actors in Massachusetts, is entitled, "The Responsibility to Remain: Black Power and Red Power Claims to Massachusetts."
Keenly invested in public humanities, McNeil has previously worked as a research assistant for the African American Trail Project at Tufts University and as a scholar-in-residence at the Framingham History Center. Currently, she sits on the board of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, as an advisory council member to the Mellon "Just Futures"-funded public history initiative, "Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty, and Freedom," and as a thought partner with Tufts University Art Galleries on programming around their newest exhibition, Véxoa: We Know (Nós sabemos). Her individual and collective writing can be found in NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association; Panorama: Journal of Association of Historians of American Art; Boston Art Review; New England Museums Now; and HowlRound Theatre Commons.
McNeil was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and she is an enrolled citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Keenly invested in public humanities, McNeil has previously worked as a research assistant for the African American Trail Project at Tufts University and as a scholar-in-residence at the Framingham History Center. Currently, she sits on the board of the Royall House and Slave Quarters, as an advisory council member to the Mellon "Just Futures"-funded public history initiative, "Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty, and Freedom," and as a thought partner with Tufts University Art Galleries on programming around their newest exhibition, Véxoa: We Know (Nós sabemos). Her individual and collective writing can be found in NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association; Panorama: Journal of Association of Historians of American Art; Boston Art Review; New England Museums Now; and HowlRound Theatre Commons.
McNeil was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and she is an enrolled citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.