Audra Simpson (born July 12, 1969) is a political anthropologist and indigenous feminist who focuses on investigating the force and consequences of governance. Simpson holds a BA in Anthropology from Concordia University and a Masters and PhD in Anthropology from McGill University. Simpson is currently a professor in the anthropology department and the director of undergraduate studies at Columbia University in New York⁸. Her research has resulted in numerous awards and fellowships including a Fullbrightresearch grant, the Minority Dissertation Write Up Fellowship ¹, the Charles Eastman Fellowship (Dartmouth) , the Provost’s Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Cornell University), and the Katrin H. Lamon Fellowship (School for Advanced Research, Sante Fe) and from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation¹⁰. In 2010, Simpson received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” from Columbia University’s School for General Studies ⁹. Simpson is the author of “Theorizing Native Studies”and “Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of the State” that received various awards.

Biography

Audra Simpson was born on July 12, 1969 to parents of Kahnawake Mohawk heritage. She was raised on a reservation that is approximately 15 kilometres south of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Kahnawake is one of eight Kanien’keháka communities now dispersed across Quebec, Ontario and New York State. Simpson enjoys returning to her reservation regularly because “my family is there, my research is there, the people I love most in the world are there.”¹².

Simpson graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at Concordia University in 1993. She then moved on to McGill University for her Masters (Graduating in 1996) and PhD (Graduating in 2004) in Anthropology ⁴.

Career

Dr. Audra Simpson began her career as an academic scholar after she successfully defended her PhD dissertation at McGill University. Following her dissertation defense, Simpson partook in Provost’s Minority Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Cornell University ¹. This led to teaching in Cornell’s American Indian program within the department of Anthropology for four and a half years⁸. Simpson later left Cornell in 2008 to pursue a teaching position at Columbia University in New York, where she is a professor in the anthropology department and the director of undergraduate studies⁸. Throughout her time at Columbia she has been recognized for filling a niche area of research that is often neglected. Her research and teaching has resulted in many accomplishments and awards, from Columbia University’s School for General Studies Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010 to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’s Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies prize in 2014³. Audra Simpson is the author of two books and an assortment of scholarly articles. Her books are titled Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of the State and Theorizing Native Studies.

Influences and Motivations

Audra Simpson is inspired by the work conducted by Taiaiake Alfred in the Carnegie Mohawks community, in Southern Quebec⁷. Simpson views Alfred as a friend, as well as a mentor: Alfred had also been Simpson's professor previously⁷. Simpson views her own work as a continuum of Alfred’s work with the Mohawk community. Both Simpson and Alfred worked alongside the Mohawk community in the creation of their books⁷.

Her book, Mohawk Interruptus, has been outlined by many as a critique in understanding the ways that “settler states recognize Indigenous nations and offer them limited rights that ultimately reinforce their own oppression and dispossession”⁷. She is able to understand and recognize these themes due to her standpoint: defined as one’s unique set of identity characteristics and lived experiences informed by Indigenous and Settler ontologies and epistemologies. In her book, Simpson explores “the alternative strategy of refusal, one that was adopted by her own tribe, who refused to acknowledge Canadian state structures”⁷.

Specific Works

Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of the State

In this 2014 book, Simpson combines political theory and ethnographic research among the Mohawk peoples of Kahnawake. She examines the strife of this Haudenosaunee group in order to articulate and maintain political sovereignty throughout centuries of settler colonialism². Three claims are returned to throughout the piece. First, Simpson challenges readers to see that a sovereign entity cannot exist within another; rather, when entities exist simultaneously they exist in a hierarchy. Second, she offers a critique of dominant politics of recognition that limit Indigenous peoples and their rights to essentialized forms of cultural difference². Lastly, Simpson highlights that refusal points to both everyday acts of Indigenous peoples and a mode of inquiry and analysis. Refusal is thus a point of resistance against modes of imperialism and colonialism for Indigenous peoples, and a technique utilized by scholars. Simpson navigates the politics of membership, belonging, and offers an alternative sovereignty and activity anthropology that directly ties to her own emergent subjectivity².

Theorizing Native Studies

This 2014 book, edited by Andrea Smith, argues for the importance of Native Studies to theory and theory to Native Studies⁵. Together, the authors share how they personally use theory to teach and explain in order to guide Native Studies in the academy. Through the construction of this collection, both encourage the widespread engagement of Native Studies with multiple fields and disciplines to strategically combine diverse intellectual partners willing to commit to goals of decolonization and the end of settler colonialism5.

Awards and honours

Simpson has received fellowships and awards including a Fullbrightresearch grant (Fullbright Foundation), the Minority Dissertation Write Up Fellowhship (American Anthropological Association), the Charles Eastman Fellowship (Dartmouth) , the Provost’s Diversity Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Cornell University), and the Katrin H. Lamon Fellowship (School for Advanced Research, Sante Fe) and from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (Simpson, 2014). In 2010, Simpson received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” from Columbia University’s School for General Studies (Penn Museum, 2015). Her book, Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States received the Sharon Stephens Prize, the “Best First Book Award” and the Lora Romero Award (Colombia University, 2019).

External Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBvJLKEWeq0&t=3875s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HnEvaVXoto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzXHqGfH3U

References

1. American Anthropological Association. (n.d.). 2002-2003 AAA Minority Dissertation Fellowship Winner. Retrieved from https://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1521

2. Barron, N. (2017). ‘Mohawk Interruptus’ by Audra Simpson. History of Anthropology Newsletter. http://histanthro.org/reviews/mohawk-interruptus/

3. Collins, C. (2017, August 3). Audra Simpson: Savage States: Settler Governance in an Age of Sorrow. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://ias.umn.edu/simpson

4. Columbia University . Audra Simpson | Department of Anthropology. 2020, https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/audra-simpson.

5. Harris, A. (2015). [Review of the book Theorizing Native Studies ed. By Audra Simpson and Andrea Smith]. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 16(1), doi:10.1353/cch.2015.0004.

6. Holcombe, S. (2017). Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States.PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. https://polarjournal.org/2017/04/27/mohawk-interruptus-political-life-across-the-bordersof-settler-states/

7. IndigenousGovernance. (2013, January 16). IGOV Indigenous Speaker Series - Dr. Audra Simpson's "Mohawk Interruptus" [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWzXHqGfH3U&t=10s

8. Kearns, R. (2016, October 17). Standout Scholar: Anthropologist Audra Simpson Puts Natives in the Present. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/standout-scholar-anthropologist-audra-simpson-puts-natives-in-the-present-wmsdoPdLe0yD7AtVH9Rgdg

9. Penn Museum. Reconciliation and Its Discontents | Penn Arts & Sciences Department of History. 2015, https://live-sas-www-history.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu/events/2015/reconciliation-and-its-discontents.

10. Simpson, Audra. Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life across the Borders of Settler States. Duke University Press, 2014.

11. University of Toronto Centre for Indigenous Studies. (n.d.). Jackman Humanities: Audra Simpson. Retrieved April 9, 2020, from https://indigenousstudies.utoronto.ca/event/audra-simpson/

12. WheelerCentre. (2016, March 20). Audra Simpson [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRiW2CJDtO0 Category:Anthropologists Category:Feminist Category:Indigenous Feminist