Vivien Tejada
Assistant Professor of History at UCLA specializing in U.S. and Native American history
Los Angeles, California
Summary
Vivien Tejada is an Assistant Professor of History at UCLA, specializing in the nineteenth-century United States, with a particular focus on the Civil War era. Her scholarship explores the complex intersections of Native American and African American history, including themes of race, slavery, labor, and law in the Upper Midwest. ucla+2
She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a heritage that deeply informs her research agenda, particularly her work on Native Americans' adoption of U.S. citizenship and the ambiguities of citizenship in the early republic. Her current manuscript, “Unfree Soil: Empire, Labor, and Coercion in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, 1812-1861,” is a significant contribution to understanding the relationship between bondage and conquest in U.S. history. ucla+3
Tejada is an active academic, contributing to significant historical forums and publications such as the Journal of the Civil War Era and The American Historical Review. She is also involved in academic community building, co-organizing the History Brown Bag Seminar Series at UCLA. ucla+3
Work
Education
Writing
The State, Unfreedom, and Emancipation in the Western Borderlands, a Roundtable
December 1, 2025Contributor to a roundtable discussion published in the Journal of the Civil War Era.
Review: By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
August 1, 2025A book review by Vivien Tejada, published in The Journal of Southern History.
Review: Republic of Indians: Empires of Indigenous Law in the Early American South
April 1, 2025A book review by Vivien Tejada, published in The William and Mary Quarterly.
Contribution to “The Agency Dilemma: A Forum”
June 1, 2023A contribution to a forum published in The American Historical Review.