Chelsea Mead

photo of a woman with long, wavy hair smiling. she is wearing a top and cardigan with a long necklace

Chelsea Mead (2012-2013) is an assistant professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato. Having grown up in Michigan, Chelsea Mead is excited to be returning to the Midwest and joining the MNSU community. She received a M.A. in History (2008) and a BS with honors in Anthropology, History and American Indian Studies from Central Michigan University (2003). During her time in Michigan, she began learning and studying Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language). She continued working with the language during her doctoral work at Arizona State University. While at ASU, Professor Mead worked on multiple grant funded projects with the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and helped found the American Indian Graduate Student Organization on ASU’s campus. She continued her training in Anthropology and History by working with scholars in American Indian Education, Applied Linguistics, and Native American History.

In 2012, Professor Mead received the Pre-Doctorate Fellowship in American Indian Studies at Michigan State University. While at MSU, she taught a course on American Indian Culture for the Anthropology Department and wrote her dissertation, which examines the intersection between higher educational institutions and indigenous language revitalization, specifically, Ojibwe language efforts. Relational understandings of these programs and their creation and evolution form the basis of her current research. She also participated in a weekly Anishinaabemowin language circle with community elders.

Areas of specialization include social/cultural anthropology, ethnography, applied anthropology, American history, Indigenous history, oral history and tradition, globally comparative Indigenous studies, Indigenous and community activism, applied linguistics, education policy and practice, museum studies and Indigenous language revitalization and survivance.