Emma Gilheany is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation examines the recent history of Nunatsiavut and Labrador, tracing Inuit sovereignty and forms of imperialism/colonialism in the circumpolar north. She uses archaeological, ethnographic, historical, and multimedia methodologies to rethink how resistance to imperialism has been theorized using the material record, and to critique the concept of a global Anthropocene. Emma’s research and teaching interests include environmental anthropology, critical settler-colonial studies, the history of Arctic social and natural sciences, historical and contemporary archaeology, and social theory. She is particularly interested in using archaeological epistemologies to intersect with and serve indigenous sovereignty.

Emma is a recipient of the Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-GRFP and NSF-GRIP), and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. At the University of Chicago, she has been awarded the Roy D. Albert Prize, and has been supported by the Center for International Social Science Research, and the Arts, Science and Culture Initiative. She earned a BA in Anthropology from Columbia University, where she won the Ralph and Rose Solecki Prize. Additionally, she holds an MA in Anthropology and a Certificate in Computational Social Science from UChicago.