Matt Villeneuve

I am a scholar of United States history and Native American and Indigenous Studies, with a particular research focus on Native schooling. I teach courses in American Indian History, Native education, and environmental history.

My first book, Instrumental Indians: John Dewey and Indigenous Schools (UPenn Press, 2026) is an intellectual history of America’s most prominent philosopher of education and democracy and his relationship to the anti-democratic nature of federal Indian schooling.

My current book project, tentatively titled, Seven Generations of Native Education: From Land to the Liberal Arts at Morris, Minnesota, examines seven different regimes of teaching and learning at a former Indian industrial boarding school to illustrate how Native lifeways of education have endured, integrated, and even surpassed schooling.

Following a stint as a Career Diversity Fellow with the American Historical Association in 2018-2020, I am committed to promoting graduate education which treats the history Ph.D. as the driver of diverse careers. My professional and personal interests often converge in various fandoms which include Natives in science fiction and fantasy writing, film, and gaming.

Education

Ph.D. in History, University of Michigan, 2021
M.A. in Social Science, University of Chicago, 2014
B.A. in History and Philosophy, University of Oregon, 2012

Selected Publications

• “John Dewey and Pedagogical Playing Indian, 1896-1904,” History of Education Quarterly 66, no. 1 (2026): 1–23.
• “Habeas Corpus and American Indian Boarding Schools: Indigenous Self-Determination in Body and Mind, 1880–1900.” The Western Historical Quarterly 56, no. 2 (2025): 93–115. https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whaf029.
• “Reconceiving Schooling: Centering Indigenous Experimentation in Indian Education History,” History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 60, No 4. (November 2020): 487-519.

Advisor To

• Makamae Sniffen

History Courses

• History 190 – American Indian History – Syllabus 2022 (pdf)
• History 201 – The Craft of Indigenous History
• History 221 – US History in 12 Indian Treaties
• HIST 380 – Sovereignty and the Schoolhouse
• History 460 – American Environmental History – Syllabus 2021 (pdf)