Circe Sturm facts for kids

Circe Sturm is a professor at the University of Texas, Austin. She teaches in the Department of Anthropology. She is also an actress, appearing in films and commercials. Her work often focuses on important topics like identity and culture.

About Circe Sturm

Circe Dawn Sturm was born in Houston, Texas, in the United States. She has shared that her father had Mississippi Choctaw heritage. Her mother is Italian American.

Family Background

Circe Sturm wrote in her book Blood Politics (2002) that she always believed her paternal grandmother had Mississippi Choctaw roots. She also mentioned a distant Cherokee connection on her grandmother's father's side.

In 2025, an investigation looked into her family history. This study reviewed many of her relatives. It reported that it did not find evidence supporting claims of Cherokee or other Native American ancestry. Circe Sturm has not shared information that goes against these findings or proves her claims of Native American heritage.

Her Work and Research

Professor Sturm writes about how people understand and express their identity, especially for the Cherokee Nation. She also studies "race shifting." This is a term for when people change how they identify their racial background.

Exploring Identity

Her book Blood Politics (2002) shares what she learned from her research. She spent time with the Cherokee Nation from 1995 to 1998. Her book Becoming Indian (2011) explores the idea of race shifting in more detail. Circe Sturm has also been interviewed about important topics related to Native American identity. These include discussions about the Cherokee Freedmen controversy and claims of Cherokee ancestry by public figures.

Mapping Indigenous Texas

Before joining the University of Texas at Austin, Circe Sturm taught at the University of Oklahoma. She and Craig Campbell started a special project called Mapping Indigenous Texas. This project aims to create an interactive tool. It helps people learn about the many Native American tribes in Texas.

Awards and Recognition

Circe Sturm has received several awards for her important work.

In 2003, the American Council of Learned Societies recognized her. They named her an ACLS Fellow for her project. This project was about "Claiming redness: the racial and cultural politics of becoming Cherokee."

In 2011, the Southern Anthropological Society gave her the James Mooney Award. This was for her book Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-first Century.

More recently, in 2024, the University of Texas at Austin honored Sturm and Craig Campbell. They received a 2023–2024 Research & Creative Grant. This grant supports their project, Mapping Indigenous Texas.

Books She Has Written

Here are some of the books Circe Sturm has written or contributed to:

• Blood Politics: Race, Culture and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
• Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-First Century
• Say, Listen: Writing as Care by the Black Indigenous 100s Collective (2024), where she was a contributor.

Learn More

You can learn more about these related topics:

• Blood quantum laws
• Cherokee descent
• Detribalization
• Native American identity in the United States
• Unrecognized tribes