Profile
Biography
David came to York in 2023 after nearly 20 years at the University of Kent, where he taught in both English and American Studies following his PhD in English and American Literature at the University of Leeds.
He is a founding co-editor of the online, open access journal Transmotion, which publishes scholarship on contemporary, innovative Indigenous writing from around the world.
In 2019 David launched Europe’s first Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies at the University of Kent, drawing on a broad network of institutions in the UK, US, and Canada. The “hub” of the Centre has come to York with him, with co-Directors at Kent, Alberta, and LCC. Alongside research activity, the Centre collaborates with non-University groups, including the Indigenous Rights-focused NGO, Incomindios UK, and the Greenham Common-Shoshone Nuclear Colonialism project.
Research
Overview
David is the author of two monographs (Louise Erdrich, Manchester UP, 2010; and Visuality and Visual Sovereignty in Contemporary Anishinaabe Literature, Michigan State UP, 2020). He has co-edited Tribal Fantasies: Native Americans in the European Imaginary, 1900-2010 (with James Mackay, Palgrave, 2013), Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-US Border (with Gillian Roberts, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014), Enduring Critical Poses, Beyond Nation and History (with Gordon Henry, Jr. and Margaret Noodin, SUNY Press, 2021), and The Canada US Border: Culture and Theory (with Jeffrey Orr, Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2024) along with four special journal issues on subjects ranging from culture and the Canada-US Border to Native Americans in the European Imaginary.
From 2012-2015 David was PI on the Leverhulme-Trust funded network “Culture and the Canada-US Border” with Dr Gillian Roberts (University of Nottingham) and a number of collaborators from the UK, US, and Canada. Since 2017 he has been PI on the AHRC-funded “Beyond the Spectacle: Native North American Presence in Britain” with Prof. Jacqueline Fear-Segal (UEA) and Prof. Coll Thrush (UBC). In 2022-23 he was UK PI on the AHRC-NEH grant “Indigenous Knowledges: a Digital Exchange and Best Practice Pilot” (with Jennifer Jenkins (University of Arizona), Rhiannon Sorrell (Diné College), and partners at Wellcome Collection). As of 2023 he is Co-PI with Chris Andersen (University of Alberta) on the AHRC-funded project “The Métis: a Global Indigenous People”.
Teaching
Undergraduate
David teaches broadly in American and Canadian Literature, as well as global Indigenous literatures.
