Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie

Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, of Seminole, Muscogee, and Diné heritage, is a Professor in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, with a faculty appointment since 2004. She also serves as Director of the C.N. Gorman Museum of Native American Art. A prominent figure in Arts and Culture, Tsinhnahjinnie is a multimedia artist and scholar whose academic background includes studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a B.F.A. in Painting from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, and an M.F.A. in Studio Arts from the University of California, Irvine in 2002.

Tsinhnahjinnie's research specializations include visual sovereignty, photography, video, serigraphy, traditional Native American techniques, and contemporary Native American art. In her role as museum director, she has guided key projects, including the Gorman Museum's reopening in a new expanded home in 2023, featuring a white metal sculpture she designed based on Native American basketry. Her artwork, celebrated for stunning portraits of Native American women and photographic explorations of Native American history, has appeared in major exhibitions such as "Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from the Helen Kornblum Collection" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2022 and "First Americans" at the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, Netherlands, from 2020 to 2022. She was a visiting artist at UC Davis in 1998, presenting her "New Works" exhibit. Tsinhnahjinnie contributed the foreword to "Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photographers," published by Heyday Press in 2006. Among her honors is the Eiteljorg Museum Contemporary Art Fellowship awarded in 2003.

Professional Email: tsinhnahjinnie@ucdavis.edu