Jenna Hunnef is a settler scholar with research and teaching specializations in Indigenous literatures of Turtle Island, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature with a regional focus on the American West. Current research projects include a SSHRC-funded project on allotment debates in Indian Territory newspapers and essays on Indigenous literary production during the modernist period. Her work has appeared in such venues as Studies in American Indian Literatures, Western American Literature, and Canadian Review of American Studies. She welcomes supervision inquiries from prospective undergraduate honours, M.A., or Ph.D. students who are interested in pursuing research related to Indigenous North American literatures, nineteenth- and/or twentieth-century American prose, literature of the North American west, law and literature, or genre fiction.

Professional Service & Roles:

Editorial Board Member, Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2022-present

Advisory Board Member, Saskatchewan Ânskohk Writers Circle, Inc., 2020-present

President, Canadian Association for American Studies, 2022-2023

Executive Committee Member, Western Literature Association, 2021-2024

Secretary, Indigenous Literary Studies Association, 2021-2023

Book Chapters

"Henry Starr's Outlaw Modernism." Routledge Handbook of North American Indigenous Modernisms, edited by Kirby Brown, Stephen Ross, and Alana Sayers, Routledge, 2022, pp. 216-27.

“Breaking Bad While Baking Bread: The Cereal Politics of Belle Starr’s Outlaw Reputation.” Food and Feast in Modern Outlaw Tales, edited by Alexander L. Kaufman and Penny Vlagopolous, Routledge, 2019, pp. 81-100.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

"The Reanimating Spirit of Zitkala-Ša's Atlantic Quartet." Arizona Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 2, Summer 2025, pp. 37-62.

“Alternative Histories of the Old Indian Territory: John Milton Oskison’s Outlaw Hypotheses.” Western American Literature, vol. 53, no. 3, Fall 2018, pp. 339-71. 

“Old Song, Rough Music: The Shivoree Politics of Lynn Riggs’s Green Grow the Lilacs.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 28, no. 3, Fall 2016, pp. 1-22. 

Book Reviews & Book Review Essays

Review of Reading Territory: Indigenous and Black Freedom, Removal, and the Nineteenth-Century State, by Kathryn Walkiewicz, American Indian Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 4, Fall 2023, pp. 391-93.

“Sovereignty Serving Selves.” Canadian Review of American Studies, vol. 48, no. 2, Summer 2018, pp. 277-87. 

Review of Finding a Way to the Heart: Feminist Writings on Aboriginal and Women’s History in Canada, edited by Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek, U of Manitoba P, 2012. Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 26, no. 4, Winter 2014, pp. 85-9. 

Courses Previously Taught

ENG 113 Reading Narrative

ENG 242 Indigenous Storytelling of the Prairies

ENG 243 Introduction to Indigenous Literatures

ENG 335 The Emergence of Indigenous Literatures in Canada

ENG 338 Contemporary North American Indigenous Literatures

ENG 464 Topics in 20th-Century American Literature

ENG 803 Indigenous Literary History and the Politics of Form

ENG 811 Indigenous Literatures in Conversation with Modernism/Modernity

ENG 803 Land Relations and Privatization in Indigenous Literatures

19th century 20th century American Studies American literature and culture Critical Indigenous Studies Genre fiction Indigenous North American literatures Law and literature

Ph.D., University of Toronto

M.A., University of Western Ontario

B.A., University of Western Ontario