David E. Wilkins
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- Political science
- Legal studies
- Native American studies
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David E. Wilkins, a citizen of the Lumbee Nation, is a political scientist specializing in federal Indian policy and law. He is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies in the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies and professor emeritus of the University of Minnesota. He studies Indigenous politics, governance, and legal systems, with a particular focus on Native American sovereignty, self-determination, and diplomacy. Wilkins was a student and friend of Vine Deloria Jr., coauthoring two books with Deloria and producing three books about his intellectual impact.
Wilkins attended the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (then called Pembroke State University), graduating with a B.A. degree in 1976.[1] He then studied political science at the University of Arizona, where he obtained an M.A. degree with a thesis entitled An Analysis of Colonial, State, and Federal Definitions of "Indian".[1] From 1984-87 he taught at Dine' College before returning to North Carolina where in 1990 he earned a PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[1] His PhD dissertation was called The Legal Consciousness of the United States Supreme Court: A Critical Examination of Indian Supreme Court Decisions Regarding Congressional "Plenary" Power and Tribal Sovereignty – 1870-1921.[1]
After completing his PhD, Wilkins spent a year as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Political Science and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona before becoming an assistant professor in 1991 and an associate professor in 1997.[1] In 1999 he moved to the University of Minnesota, where he was a professor in the departments of American Indian Studies, Political Science, Law, and American Studies.[1] In 2007 he was named McKnight Presidential Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.[1] In 2019, he became E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.[1]
Wilkins has been a visiting faculty member at a number of institutions, including the Gordon Russell Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College and a visiting faculty member at Harvard University, Weber State University, and Evergreen State College.[1]
