Catherine Denial
Mary Elizabeth Hand Bright and Edwin Winslow Bright Distinguished Professor of American History
Meet Professor Denial
she, her, hers
Years at Knox: 2005 to present
My new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness, was published in 2024 with the University of Oklahoma Press. I argue that academia needs to get relentlessly kind, a practice that has nothing to do with simply “being nice.” Kindness requires a commitment to justice be front and center in our teaching in order for us to co-create incredible learning opportunities with our students.
My historical research has focused on nineteenth-century marriage, divorce, pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy among Native and non-Native communities in what we currently call Minnesota. By looking at interpersonal relationships, I’m able to gain a new perspective on who had what power in the region at any given moment, and offer new ways to think about Native resistance to American colonialism.
Education
Ph.D., History, 2005, University of Iowa.
MA, History, 1996, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
B.A., (Hons), American Studies, 1994, University of Nottingham.
Teaching Interests
Women, Gender, and Sexuality; Native and Indigenous History; Pedagogy.
Full Curriculum Vitae - (PDF)
Selected Professional Accomplishments
Honors/Grants
Associated Colleges of the Midwest Leadership Fellow, 2025-2027.
Exceptional Achievement Award, Knox College, 2025.
Funding for “Rebellion, Revolution, and Resistance: Rethinking the American Survey.” from the ‘Abolition for All Time’ grant, awarded to Knox College by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $6000. (2025).
Exceptional Achievement Award, Knox College, 2024.
FaCE grant with Andrea Tracy (Grinnell) and Jennifer Jacobsen (Macalester), “Sustainable Strategies for Supporting Well-Being and Academic Engagement for Faculty and Students,” Associated Colleges of the Midwest, $22,500. (2024).
Participant (competitive application), “Convening of Care,” funded by the National Science Foundation in a grant to the American Association of Geographers and the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. (Summer/Fall, 2024).
Elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA., (2024).
Member, Johnston Family/Ojibwe Histories Advisors, The Ojibwe Muzzeniegun Digital Edition, Kelly Wisecup (Northwestern University) PI., (2024).
Principal Investigator, “Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care in the Academy after COVID-19,” a program officer’s grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Knox College, $150,000, (2022).
Faculty Innovation Grant from the Dan J. Logan Peace and Justice Studies Fund, Knox College, $4000, (2020).
Exceptional Achievement Award, Knox College, (2020).
Philip Green Wright/Lombard College Teaching Award Winner for Tenured Faculty, Knox College, (2019).
American Historical Association, Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, (2018).
Knox College TRIO Program Outstanding Educator of the Year, (2018).
Selected for the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic’s Second-Book Writers’ Workshop, SHEAR Annual Meeting, (July 2018).
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, American Philosophical Society, June-July, Philadelphia, PA, $3000, (2018).
FaCE Grant, with Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak, Adrienne Falcon, Emily A. Bowman, Eric Popkin, Javier Escandell, “Sharing Expertise in Community-Based Learning & Research Addressing Immigration,” Associated Colleges of the Midwest, $25,504, (2017).
The Illinois Humanities Council, funding for "People and Place," the 2014 Museums,
Monuments and Memory class exhibit, $1275, (2013).
Publications
“How I Met My Mother,” updated and revised, in The Nursing Clio Editorial Collective, eds., The Nursing Clio Reader. Rutgers University Press, 2025, 84-88.
“For Those Who Do Not Love the Archives,” in Rebecca Pope-Ruark and Lee Skallerup Bassette, eds., Of Many Minds: Neurodiversity and Mental Health Among University Faculty and Staff. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025, 17-25.
“In Every Instance of Kindness: A Grateful Response to Cupido, Draucker, Kirby, and Santangelo,” Zeal: A Journal of the Liberal Arts, 3:2 (2025): 204-207.
A Pedagogy of Kindness, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2024. (Finalist, Indie Awards, Education.)
“Wrestling with A.I.,” Beth Buyserie and Travis Thurston, eds., Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions.
OER Pressbook, April 2024, https://uen.pressbooks.pub/teachingandgenerativeai/
Paperback: Utah State University Press, 2024.
“Ethics and the Practice of History,” in Ron Iphofen, ed. Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity. Springer Nature, 2020.
“‘Mother of all the living’: Motherhood, Religion, and Political Culture at the Ojibwe Village of Fond du Lac, 1835-1839,” Early American Studies. 17:4 (Fall 2019): 443-473.
“A Pedagogy of Kindness,” Hybrid Pedagogy, August 15, 2019.
“How I Met My Mother: The Tale of an Unexpected Pregnancy,” Nursing Clio, Wednesday, June 5, 2019.
“The Privilege of Despair,” Nursing Clio, Monday, October 8, 2018.
“The Subjective Self: Teaching Student Historians to ask ‘Who Am I?’,” Syllabus. 5:2 (2016).
Making Marriage: Husbands, Wives, and the American State in Dakota and Ojibwe Country. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2013.
“Atoms, Honeycombs, and Fabric Scraps: Rethinking Timelines in the Undergraduate Classroom,” The History Teacher, 46:3 (May 2013): 415-434.
"Pelagie Farribault’s Island: Property, Kinship, and the Contested Meaning of Marriage in Dakota Country," Minnesota History. 62:2 (Summer 2010): 48-59.
Presentations
Keynote speaker on kindness and teaching: Aims Community College, Associate for Distance Education and Independent Learning, Central New Mexico Community College/University of New Mexico, CUNY-Kingsborough, Flagler College, Indiana University-Bloomington, Marian University, Notre Dame, Quinnipiac University, St Catherine’s University, Trinity University, University of Dubuque, Ventura College, Wayne State, Wright State University. 2025.
Workshop kickoff, “Departmental Kindness,” A Pre-Conference Workshop for Chairs from Small Colleges, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, New York, January 4, 2025. (virtual)
Keynote speaker on kindness and teaching: Brock University, Daytona State University, Gettysburg College, Oakton College, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, St Olaf College, University College of Cork (Ireland), University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, University of Minnesota-Rochester, University of Virginia, University of Washington, Virginia Tech, 2024.
Workshop leader on kindness, teaching, and GenAI: Iona College, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, St Olaf College, University of California-Irvine, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, 2024.
Plenary panelist, “Teaching American and Digital Revolutions,” American Revolutions in the Digital Age conference, Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, Iona College, New Rochelle, New York, September 28, 2024.
Co-presenter, with Liz Lehfeldt, “Care in the Academy,” AAC&U Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment, Providence, R.I., April 12, 2024.
Workshop leader, “A Pedagogy of Kindness in Action,” AAC&U Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment, Providence, R.I., April 11, 2024.
Keynote speaker on kindness and teaching: American University, Georgia State University, Grinnell College, Hollins University, Queens University, University of Mississippi, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, University of Texas Permian Basin, Western Kentucky University, 2023.
Workshop leader on kindness and teaching; trauma-informed teaching: American University, Binghamton University, Grinnell College, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2023.
Plenary speaker, “A Pedagogy of Kindness,” AAC&U General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment Conference, New Orleans, February 10, 2023.
Keynote speaker on kindness and teaching: Academic Practice and Technology Conference co-hosted by University College London, London School of Economics, and Imperial College (United Kingdom), Agnes, Scott College, Austin Peay State University, CUNY (virtual; system wide); CUNY-LaGuardia Community College, Indiana University-Bloomington, Juniata College, National Lewis University, Northern Illinois University, Northern Virginia Community College, St Catherine’s University, St Mary’s University of Minnesota, Tarrant County College, Triton College, University of Mississippi, University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), 2022.
Workshop leader on kindness and teaching: Cornell College, 2022.
Keynote Speaker on kindness and teaching: American Historical Association Digital History Workshop, Dallas College, Fourth Biennial Teaching History Conference at the University of California-Davis, Florida Southwestern Community College, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 2021.
Workshop leader on teaching and kindness: Bard College, Florida Southwestern Community College, Indiana University-Purdue University Indiana, Monash University (Australia), Northwestern University, SUNY-Plattsburgh, New York, 2021.
“Making the Grade: An Introduction to Ungrading,” LectureBreakers Summer Conference, June 10, 2021, (virtual).
“Pelagie Faribault’s Island: Marriage, Land, and Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Mni Sota Makoce,” Mendota After Hours, May 14, 2021, (virtual).
Chair, “From Comics and Quilts to Websites and Poems: The Unessay as a Unique and Empowering Pedagogical Tool,” Fourth Biennial Teaching History Conference, University of California-Davis, May 8, 2021 (virtual).
“Decolonizing Museum Labels,” Digital Stories for Knowledge Equity, Socially Just Academia, January 26, 2021, (virtual).
Workshop leader, “A Pedagogy of Kindness,” Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, January 21, 2021, (virtual).
Workshop leader on teaching and kindness: Bard College, Carleton College, Williams College, 2020.
Workshop leader, “Creating Breathing Room for Our Students and Ourselves,” Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, December 17, 2020.
Lead Co-Facilitator with Gabrielle Raley-Karlin, Introduction to Intergroup Dialogue (three-hour workshop) at Lake Forest College’s Diversity Summit, Lake Forest, Illinois, January 25, 2020.
Panelist, “Teaching Students How to Write History,” roundtable at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January 6, 2020.
Campus & Community Involvement
- Appointed Member, Editorial Board of Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, 2024-present
- Curriculum Committee-Assessment, Knox College, 2024-2026
- Chair, 2025
- Appointed to the Louis Pelzer Memorial Award Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2022-2025.
- Appointed Member, Editorial Board of Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life, 2021-2025.
- Faculty Mentor, Organization of American Historians, 2022.
- Board Member, Family Planning Service of Western Illinois, 2020-2023.
- Appointed Member, Editorial Board of the Western Historical Quarterly, 2020-2022.
- External Reviewer for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, Lake Forest College, 2020.
- External Reviewer for History department review, St Benedict’s College/St John’s University, 2019.
- Board Member, Safe Harbor Family Crisis Center, Galesburg, IL., 2019.
- Appointed to the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lectureship Program, 2018-2024.
- External Reviewer for History department review, Illinois College, 2018.
- Knox College Faculty Ombudsperson, 2017-2022.
- Appointed Member, University of Iowa Graduate College External Advisory Board, 2017-2019.
- Elected member, Faculty Representative on the Knox College Board of Trustees, 2016-2017.
- Elected member, Executive Committee of the College, 2013-2016.
- Chair, Faculty Affairs Subcommittee, 2014-2015.
- Elected Observer to the Board of Trustees, 2011-2013.
- Knox College Academic Standing Committee, 2012-2013.
- Knox College Cultural Events Committee, 2012.
- Knox College Curriculum Committee, 2007-2010.
Peer Reviewer
American Indian Culture and Research Journal
Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life
Currents in Teaching and Learning
Ethnohistory
Feminist Formations
Hybrid Pedagogy
Journal of American History
Journal of Canadian History
Journal of Military History
Minnesota History
Syllabus
To Improve the Academy
Western Historical Quarterly
Manuscript Reviewer
Bedford/St. Martins
Palgrave Macmillan
Princeton University Press
Westview Press
University of Oklahoma Press
University of Pittsburgh Press