Research Interest

Global Indigenous Arts, Museum Studies, Curation, Indigenous Feminisms, Institutional Critique, Archival Studies, The History of Photography

Biography

Nancy Marie Mithlo is a scholar of race and representation who studies the social production and circulation of American Indian/Indigenous arts and cultures nationally and internationally. Her training as a cultural anthropologist (Stanford University PhD, 1993) informs the ethnographic case study and institutional critique approaches she utilizes. Mitho’s research offers a corrective lens to the often biased and narrow reading of American Indian cultures by focusing on the interior lives and motivations of Native artists in the politicized context of settler colonialism. She analyzes and exposes the politics of memory institutions – museums, archives, film, and fine arts. Her work goes beyond the often celebratory and descriptive art historical analyses of objects and their circulation by utilizing an empirical approach to theorization, working from an inductive or grounded theoretical analysis. Her most recent research employs cognitive science approaches to visitor reception studies. She remains active in Indigenous archival studies through her writing, teaching and research. A member of the Fort Sill Chiricahua Apache Tribe of Oklahoma and New Mexico, Mithlo is an active curator employing American Indian Curatorial Practice mandates of work that is long-term, mutually meaningful, reciprocal and with mentorship. She has led nine exhibits at the La Biennale di Venezia, the subject of her most recent book, Red Skin Dreams: Twenty Years of Curating Indigenous Art at the Venice Biennale, (University of Nebraska Press), 2026. A life-long educator, Mithlo has taught at the University of New Mexico, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Santa Fe Community College, Smith College, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her co-edited book Visualizing Genocide: Indigenous Interventions in Art, Archives and Museums was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2022.

Publications

Selected Books

Mithlo, Nancy Marie. 2026. Red Skin Dreams: Twenty Years of Curating Indigenous Art at the Venice Biennale. 1st ed. Nebraska.

Chavez, Yve, and Nancy Marie Mithlo, eds. 2022. Visualizing Genocide : Indigenous Interventions in Art, Archives, and Museums  / Edited by Yve Chavez and Nancy Marie Mithlo ; Foreword by Charlene Villaseñor Black. First edition. The University of Arizona Press.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie. 2020. Knowing Native Arts. 1st ed. Nebraska. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv13qftg2.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie, ed. 2020. Making History : IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts : Institute of American Indian Arts. University of New Mexico Press.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie, ed. 2019. “Fraud in Native American Communities: Essays in Honor of Suzan Shown Harjo.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 43(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/aicrj.43.4.mithlo.introduction

Mithlo, Nancy Marie, ed. 2014. National Museum of the American Indian. For a Love of His People : The Photography of Horace Poolaw. Yale University Press.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie. 2009. “Our Indian Princess” : Subverting the Stereotype  / Nancy Marie Mithlo. 1st ed. School for Advanced Research.

Selected Articles

Mithlo, Nancy Marie and Aleksandra Sherman. 2025. “The Returned Gaze: Comparing Native and non-Native Audience Responses to Indigenous Films.” In Integrative Contemporary Art and Science Practices, edited by J.D. Talasek, and Barbara Stauffer Routledge Press.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie and Celestina Castillo. 2023. “Indigenous Curation in LA: The People’s Home: Winston Street 1974.” In Teachings: Routledge Companion of Indigenous Art Histories in Canada and the United States edited by Heather Igloliorte, and Carla Taunton. Routledge Press

Mithlo, Nancy Marie. 2022. “Native American Art 101.” In Understanding and Teaching Native American History edited by Brady DeSanti and Kristofer Ray. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Mithlo, Nancy Marie and Alexandra Sherman. 2020. “How Perspective-taking in Museums Can Lead to Increased Bias: A Call for ‘Less Certain’ Positions in American Indian Contexts.” Curator: The Museum Journal, 63(3).

Mithlo, Nancy Marie and Tressa Berman – “‘The Way Things Are,’ Curating Place as Feminist Practice in American Indian Women’s Art.” In Entering the Picture, Judy Chicago, The Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists, ed. Jill Fields, Pp.267-282.

“‘A Real Feminine Journey’: Locating Indigenous Feminisms in the Arts.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2009, 9(2): 1-30.

Projects

Ongoing visitor reception research with Dr. Aleksandra Sherman, Professor of Cognitive Science, Occidental College.

“Land That Breathes” film festival, May 30, 2026, at the UCLA James Bridges Theater (with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Great Oak Press, Pechanga Band of Indians).

“DISTANT: Centering Indigenous Feminisms in Film,” November 4, 2022, UCLA Kaufman Dance Theater.

In the Media

Featured Storyteller for “The Aunties: Contemporary Indigenous Storytelling Series.”
Skirball Cultural Center, 2025.
www.indigenousperformance.org/nancymariemithlo

Native American Scholars Take on “Killers of the Flower Moon” on NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute” with host Brittany Luse, November 14, 2023. Featuring Liza Black, Robert Warrior and Nancy Marie Mithlo.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197954279.

“I Heard the Song of My Grandmother: Art and Indigenous Feminisms.” Symposium presentation with Kristen Dorsey (Chickasaw) Graduate student, University of California Los Angeles, Department of Gender Studies on the occasion of the Nevada Museum of Art’s 2022 exhibition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AACbCZBMm6c

Nancy Marie Mithlo on 5 Plain Questions Podcast, 2022
Available on Apple Podcasts
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nancy-marie-mithlo/id1510487029?i=1000557557923
Or SoundCloud
soundcloud.com/eleven-warrior-arts/nancy-marie-mithlo