Ashlee Bird

Dissertation:
“Representation and Reclamation: The History and Future of Natives in Gaming” (working title)

Education:

• BA in English and American Literature and American Studies, Senior Honors Thesis: “What Makes the Red Man Red: The Figure of the Native American in Modern Literature and Popular Culture”  Middlebury College, 2013
   
• MA in American Studies with an emphasis in Literature, Thesis: “The Colors of Power: A Comparative History of the Black Power Movement and the American Indian Movement”

• University of Nottingham, 2014
  MA in Native American Studies, University of California, Davis, 2017

Fellowships, Grants, Awards:

• Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship 2015
• Student chosen to be funded to attend the Advanced Media Archeology seminar at Concordia University in 2016
• Invited to and received funding to attend the Future Imaginary Lecture Series at Concordia University in 2016
• Native American Studies Graduate Program Fellowship 2016 and 2017
• Recipient of a GSR for the UC Davis ModLab under the Mellon Research Initiative in Digital Cultures in 2017
• Nominated to the  UC Davis chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society
• Awarded the ImagineNATIVE GDC Scholarship 2019 to attend the annual Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco
• Love of Learning Award, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 2019

Publications:

• Bird, Ashlee. “Synthetic Spaces and Indigenous Identity: Decolonizing Video Games and Reclaiming Representation” in Return to the Interactive Past. Edited by Angus A.A. Mol, Csilla E. Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, Krijn H.J. Boom & Aris Politopoulos. Leiden: Sidestone Press, Forthcoming.

Presentations:

• “Synthetic Spaces and Indigenous Identity: Decolonizing Video Games and ROM Hacking Super Mario Bros.” Turtle Island Faculty and Doctoral Exchange. Davis, CA, October 22-November 4, 2016.
• Video game One Small Step displayed at the Heritales Film Festival in Evora, Portuga, September 21-23, 2017
• “Living at the Edge of the Galaxy: Queering Mass Effect with the Asari” SLSA (Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts). Tempe, Arizona, November 11, 2017.
• Synthetic Spaces and Indigenous Identity: Decolonizing Video Games and ROM Hacking Super Mario Bros.” Interactive Pasts Conference 2 at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, Netherlands, October 9, 2018.
• Video game, One Small Step featured in the InDigital Space at the 2018 ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival, Toronto, Ontario.
•  “Representation and Reclamation: The History and Future of Natives in Gaming”. UC Davis Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium. Davis, CA, November 2, 2018.
• “Synthetic Spaces and Indigenous Identity: Decolonizing Video Games and ROM Hacking Super Mario Bros.” SLSA (Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts). Toronto, Ontario, November 17, 2018.
•  “Synthetic Spaces and Indigenous Identity: Decolonizing Video Games and ROM Hacking Super Mario Bros.” SAA (Society of American Archaeology), Tucson, Arizona, April 11, 2019.
•  “Teaching (with) Queer & Indigenous Games” HASTAC. Vancouver, BC, May 17, 2019.
• “Embodied Spaces: Community Based Practices of Indigenous Revitalization and Maintenance" NAISA (Native American and Indigenous Studies Association). Hamilton, New Zealand, June 28, 2019.
• Writer for short film The Valedictorian of Carlisle Indian School which was accepted into the 2016 ImagineNATIVE film festival in Toronto, Ontario, where is was nominated for Best Experimental Piece, and received the second most votes.
  • This film was recently an installation in the September 2017-January 2018 VOICE exhibit at the Roseville Maidu Museum in Roseville, CA, which featured the work of Indigenous women artists.
• Video Game developed with Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Full of Birds, featured in the InDigital Space at the 2019 ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival, as well as at the Night of the Indigenous Devs at the 2019 ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Festival