Photo: Jim McCambridge
Caitlin A. Keliiaa (pronounced “keh-LEE-EE-ah-ah”) is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a feminist historian specializing in Native American Studies, Labor Studies, Gender Studies, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. Her research examines the intersections of race, gender, and labor, focusing on the historical consequences of Indigenous labor exploitation, dispossession, and surveillance in the 20th-century American West. Keliiaa is Yerington Paiute and Washoe.
Keliiaa earned a B.A. in Native American Studies and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in American Indian Studies from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley in 2019.
She is the author of Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program, in which she explores how Native women domestic workers negotiated and resisted the Bay Area Outing Program. Through federal archival research, she amplifies the voices of Native women whose labor and resistance challenged settler colonialism. The book is available from the University of Washington Press.
Beyond her research and teaching, Keliiaa is a dedicated mentor, ad has worked with students in programs such as the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF), the Student Mentored and Research Training (SMART) program, and the Koret Scholars Undergraduate Research Program. She teaches courses on Indigenous feminisms, settler colonial studies, and California Indian history, incorporating a range of methodologies, from archival analysis to Indigenous storytelling.
Contact Information
Email: ckeliiaa@ucsc.edu
Website: https://caitlinkeliiaa.com/index.html
Phone: (831) 459-3701
Selected Works
Keliiaa, Caitlin. Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program (University of Washington Press, 2024)
Keliiaa, Caitlin, “The Archive Is Ours: Rethinking Possession of the Historical Record,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 47, no. 3 (2024).
Kelliiaa, Caitlin, Panelist, “Why Indigenous Land Back is a Feminist Issue” (Clayman Conversations, November 14, 2023) – Discusses the role of Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people in land reclamation movements and the intersection of gender and Indigenous sovereignty. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kCml_ILcX0&t=253s
Keliiaa, Caitlin, Presenter, “IAC Fall Forum 2022” (UCLA Institute of American Cultures, October 20, 2022) – Presentation on “Unsettling Domesticity: Native Women and the SF Bay Area Outing Program” analyzing Indigenous women’s labor experiences and resistance. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhWhu-5KMfI
Keliiaa, Caitlin. “Unsettling Domesticity: Native Women Challenging U.S. Indian Policy in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1911-1931” Institute for the Study of Societal Issues Working Paper Series (May 8, 2017), Open Access Publications from the University of California, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3md8r7hh