Kasey Jones-Matrona

Ph.D. in English, Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Oklahoma, 2021
M.A. in English, Salisbury University, 2017
B.A. in English, Washington College, 2014

Kasey Jones-Matrona (she/her) is a settler scholar from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She successfully defended her dissertation, Indigenous Futurisms: Genre and World-Building, and graduated with her Ph.D. in 2021. Kasey has previously designed and taught courses in the following departments at OU: English; Environmental Studies; Geography and Environmental Sustainability. Her research interests exist at the intersections of literary studies, Native American and cultural studies, and environmental humanities. 

Native American literature; Native American women writers; Indigenous futurisms; Indigenous feminisms; Indigenous digital storytelling and activism; Indigenous feminist eco-criticism; Afrofuturism; Environmental humanities; Anthropocene studies; Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK); Environmental justice; Eco-memoir; Caribbean literature.

“Indigenous Anthropocenes in Poetry: Mvskoke Homelands in Jennifer Foerster’s Bright Raft in the Afterweather.” Transmotion vol 7, no 2, Fall 2021. Special Issue: Global Indigenous Literature and Climate Change, pp. 27-53.

“Reclaiming Jamaica’s Indigenous Space through Storytelling in Lorna Goodison’s Controlling the Silver.” Journal of Midwest Modern Language Association, Special Spring Issue 2019: Transatlantic Dialogues, pp. 125-143.  

“From #MMIWG to #NotInvisible: Indigenous Women in the #MeToo Era.” #MeToo in Literary Studies. Ed. Heather Hewett and Mary Holland. Bloomsbury Press, Oct. 2021, pp. 83-97.

“The Quest for ‘Alien’ Indigenous Knowledge in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Excavating Indiana Jones: Critical Essays on the Films and Franchise. Ed. Randy Laist. MacFarland Publishing, 2020, pp. 87-99.

2021
University of Oklahoma Teach OUt on Race Conference. April 2021. Panel organizer and co-presenter. “Incorporating Native American Voices in the Writing Classroom.” Norman, Oklahoma.
 

2020
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association: May 2020. Panel presenter, “Visual Sovereignty and Digital Activism in the Video Poetry of Heid Erdrich and Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner.” Toronto, Canada. [Conference postponed due to COVID-19]

Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.: April 2020. Panel presenter, “Indigenous YA Speculative Fiction: World-Making in Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves.” New Orleans, Louisiana. [Conference postponed due to COVID-19]

Modern Language Association: January 2020. Panel participant, “The Other Me-Too’s.” Seattle, Washington. Presentation Title: “From #MMIW to #Not Invisible: Indigenous Women in the #MeToo Era.” Seattle, Washington.
 

2019
Native American Literature Symposium: March 2019. Panel Organizer and Presenter. “Decolonizing the Anthropocene: Posthumanity, Post-Apocalyptic Poetry, and Environmental Activism.” Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Midwest Modern Language Association: November 2018. Panel presenter. “‘We Are Already Eating Each Other:’ Monsters and Cultural Cannibalism in Heid Erdrich’s “Undead Faerie Goes Great With India Pale Ale.’” Kansas City, Missouri.

Native American Literature Symposium: March 2018. Panel presenter. Excerpts from “Women Warriors: Trauma, Renewal, and Healing with Female Earth in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms, Power, and People of the Whale.” Prior Lake, Minnesota.

2017
Native American Literature Symposium: March 2017. Panel presenter. “Colonized Knowledge and Imagination in Two Joy Harjo Poems.” Prior Lake, Minnesota.

University of Oklahoma English Department PhD GTA Teaching Award (2020)
Nancy L. Mergler Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2020-2021)
Bruce Granger Dissertation Fellowship for American Studies (2020-2021)
National Humanities Center Graduate Student Summer Residency (2020)

Manuscript: Indigenous Futurisms: Genre and World-Building

Book chapter: “Creating Collaborative Digital Poetic Worlds in the Video Poetry of Heid Erdrich and Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner.” Routledge Handbook to Alternative Futurisms. Forthcoming 2022.

Conference Presentation/article: “Imagining an End to Violence Against Indigenous Women: Intersections of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms in YA Speculative Fiction.”

Academic Journal articles: “Native American and African American Ecological Memoirs;” “#LandBack: Native Americans and National Parks”