Autumn Asher BlackDeer completed her PhD in Social Work with a focus on structural violence against American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Dr. Autumn Asher BlackDeer is a queer decolonial scholar from the Southern Cheyenne Nation and serves as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. Dr. BlackDeer centers Indigenous voices throughout her research by using quantitative approaches and big data as tools for responsible storytelling. Dr. BlackDeer is a racial equity scholar with an emphasis on Indigenous tribal sovereignty and is deeply committed to decolonizing the academy.
During her time at Washington University in St. Louis, Autumn was a doctoral fellow for the CSWE’s Minority Fellowship Program, a Buder fellow for the Buder Center for American Indian Studies, and a Chancellor’s Fellow for Washington University in St. Louis’ Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship Program. She was the lead research assistant at the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training (CICM) at the Brown School of Social Work where she worked on the LEAD Predoctoral Summer Institute to recruit underrepresented minority child welfare professionals to return to the academy for their doctoral degrees and diversify the professoriate. Autumn also co-founded the BIPOC PhD Collective with fellow Chancellor’s fellow Maria Gandarilla-Ocampo to hold a sacred space for fellow colleagues of color across social work doctoral institutions. She plans to continue this work throughout her career to decolonize the academy and help clear the path for future generations of scholars of color.