American Indians Go Graphic

Prof. Courtney Lewis (Cherokee Nation citizen): Dr. Lewis has been teaching her U.S. Indigenous comic book course, American Indians Go Graphic, since 2022, but she has been an Indige-geek throughout her life. This exhibit is part of her broader work to bring attention to, and elevate, comic books and graphic novels as powerful tools for scholarship, while also highlighting the versatility and visibility that these mediums offer in educating the general public about the imaginings and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in the U.S. today. 

Lee Francis IV, Ph.D. (Pueblo of Laguna first descendant), aka Dr. IndigiNerd, is the award-winning Founder and Chief Imagination Officer of the Indigenous Imagination Workshop, an organization dedicated to sparking and cultivating the Indigenous Imagination. He is an educator, entrepreneur, and founder of the Indigenous Comic Con, Indigenous Worlds of Wonder, the Indigenous Futurisms Festival, Native Realities, and Red Planet Books and Comics. 

The students of Spring 2025 “American Indians Go Graphic”:

Meghan Kelly
Alexa Jimenez
Minha Kim
Emme Payne
Iyesha Belgrave
Marie Rosine Tuyikunde
Jonathon McClean
Nolan Arkansas
Kiki Yadav

Special thanks to: Christina Veregge (on behalf of the Family of Jeffrey Veregge), Tom Farris, Kristin Gentry, Ben Alper, and the staff of the Duke University Libraries, especially Meg Brown, Yoon Kim, Aaron Welborn, Michael Daul, Janelle Hutchinson, Linda Daniel, and Jeremy Martin. This exhibition was sponsored in part by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.