Alona Whitebird Medina,

Alona Whitebird Medina (Cheyenne Arapaho) is a first year PhD student in the History department. Her research focuses on the history of sexual violence in Native American and United States history. Her publication, “#MeToo, But Not For Everyone: How White Feminism Harms the Reach of #MeToo,” Central Dissent, 2022, follows reactions to sexual violence through the #MeToo movement and various factions of feminist thought. More recently she has been studying Native American boarding schools and the various forms of assimilation in these institutions, including sexual violence. 

Alona taught in Oklahoma public schools after earning her BA in History Education from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2016. As a public school teacher, Alona was named the 2019 James Madison Fellow and earned her MA in History (2021, University of Central Oklahoma) through this fellowship. Additionally, she was selected as the History Teacher of the Year for Oklahoma through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2021. Her background as an educator has prompted her interest in studying education in American history and advocating for diverse history curriculum in public schools.

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Recent Publications

1. Whitebird Medina, A, #MeToo, But Not For Everyone: How White Feminism Harms the Reach of #MeToo, Central Dissent (2022), pp. 51-70, University of Central Oklahoma