Zada Ballew

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Email: zballew@wisc.edu

Address:
Advisor: Stephen Kantrowitz

Zada Ballew

Biography

My dissertation explores the business history of my tribal nation, the Pokagon [Po-kay-gun] Band of Potawatomi [Pot-uh-watt-toe-me] Indians, from treaties in the nineteenth century to casinos today.

Education

M.A., U.S./North American History, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2021
B.A., Economics and Psychology, University of Notre Dame, 2019

Field

  • U.S./North American History

MA Title

  • “‘The Indian Side of the Question’: Settling the Story of Potawatomi Removal in the Twentieth Century Midwest”

Working Dissertation Title

  • “A Company of Kin: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the Business of Tribal Nationalism”

Selected Publications

  •  Review of As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories in their Contexts, ed. by Blaire Morseau, The Michigan Historical Review (forthcoming)
  • “‘The Indian Side of the Question’: Settling the Story of Potawatomi Removal in the Twentieth-Century Midwest.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 23, no. 2 (2024): 170–89
  • “‘Smeared by Dark Ironies’: Critiquing Columbus at the 1893 World’s Fair.” Co-authored with Kelly Wisecup, published as part of the exhibition “Harriet Monroe & the Open Door,” Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL, Fall/Winter 2023-2024. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/160795/smeared-by-dark-ironies
  • Review of Making the Carry: The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater, by Timothy Cochrane, World History Encyclopedia. Last modified March 07, 2023
  • Review of Charles C. Painter: The Life of an Indian Reform Advocate, by Valerie Sherer Mathes, South Dakota History, Vol. 52 Issue 3 (Fall 2022): 285-286
  • On Listening: A Reflection on the Challenges and Opportunities of Writing Native Histories of UW-Madison.” Public History Project Blog, November 8, 2021

Selected Awards

  • Elouise Cobell Dissertation Writing-Year Fellowship, 2024 – 2025
  • Good Path Awards – Emerging Leader, Mno-Bmadsen, 2024
  • K. Austin Kerr Prize, The Business History Conference, 2024
  • Research Fellowship, Native American Initiative of Notre Dame, 2023-2024
  • Graduate Student Essay Prize, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE), 2022
  • Early Excellence Teaching Assistant Award, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2021
  • Kate Everest Levi Second-Year Paper Prize, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2021

Courses Taught as TA

  • History 109 – Who is an American? with Professor Stephen Kantrowitz, Fall 2021
  • History / Afro-American Studies 393 – Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction with Prof. Stephen Kantrowitz, Spring 2022
  • History / Environmental Studies / Geography 460 – American Environmental History with Prof. William Cronon, Fall 2020
  • History / American Indian Studies 490 – American Indian History with Prof. Sasha Maria Suarez, Spring 2021

Courses Taught as Instructor

  • History / Environmental Studies / Geography 460 – American Environmental History, Summer 2024