Congratulations to Anthropology Associate Professor, Dr Jenny Davis, for being named Conrad Humanities Scholar for 2022! 

According to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announcement, "the Conrad Humanities Scholars Award recognizes promising mid-career scholars and provides financial support for continued achievement, research, and scholarship in humanities. The designation is for five years." 

Here is Dr Davis description of her project: 

"My project, Deer Woman Killed De Soto, is a speculative feminist retelling of Hernando De Soto’s final days in 1542 that puts the mythology of De Soto in conversation with the narratives and archives of the Indigenous communities and lands he “discovered.” This project prioritizes discounted and as-of-yet- excluded archives, texts, and sources of knowing the past (and present), including Indigenous stories and archives, the land itself, and an anti-imperial reading of the Spanish colonial archive. Research for this project includes retracing De Soto's proposed path through the Southeastern U.S. to multiple proposed sites of death along the Mississippi; exploring sources within tribal archives and libraries of Native Nations who De Soto encountered; and trips to to El Archivo General de Indias and El Archivo Nacional de Cuba."