About Kellen Eisner

My project will research Diné constructions of gender identity on the Navajo Nation, and if they changed during extensive uranium mining in the mid-twentieth century. Although there is abundant research on the health and environmental impacts on the Navajo Nation from uranium mining, there is great potential to further explore how Navajo men and women were impacted, and understood their experiences as they confronted white, masculine forms of labor. I will analyze transcripts of oral histories of Navajo miners and their family members to determine the extent in which Navajo gender identity changed through this toxic form of labor.