Amy Casselman-Hontalas

Hello! My name is Amy Casselman-Hontalas, and I am a PhD candidate in sociology at Stanford University with a minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I am a legal and historical sociologist who studies how people and institutions in power use language, law, and policy to assert and reproduce social hierarchies, particularly around issues of race, gender, and Indigenous rights.

My research is interdisciplinary and grounded in qualitative methods, including archival research and discourse analysis. I am expert in federal Indian law and the author of Injustice in Indian Country: Jurisdiction, American Law, and Sexual Violence Against Native Women, a monograph that situates violence against Native women within a broader colonial legal regime. My most recent publication is a chapter in the new edited volume Policing Not Protecting Families: The Child Welfare System as Poverty Governance, in which I explore how U.S. child welfare policy operates as a mechanism of settler colonialism. I am also the author or co-author of scholarship on U.S. healthcare systems and analyses of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

I have more than a decade of university-level teaching experience in Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, and Sociology, where I design courses that engage students in critical conversations about inequality, power, and resistance. I am currently on the job market for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Sociology, Legal Studies, Gender Studies, or a related interdisciplinary field.

Prior to my career in academia, I served as a caseworker for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, providing support services for Native children and families.