Courtney Lewis

Courtney Lewis (Ph.D., UNC Chapel Hill, 2012) is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Her research explores the themes of native sovereignty, economic justice, and the ethnography of tribal capitalism, focusing on small businesses in the Cherokee Qualla Boundary in the North Carolina mountains. Her prize-winning book, Sovereign Entrepreneurs: Cherokee Small-Business owners and the Making of Economic Sovereignty (2019, UNC Press) is driven by a powerful sense of moral as well as scholarly engagement with issues of social justice and native sovereignty insofar as developing tribal businesses is a key aspect of 21^st century American Indian life. Her current research explores Native American food sovereignty.

Bio February 2023