Eve Tuck is Professor of Indigenous Studies and James Weldon Johnson Professor at Steinhardt, in the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, at New York University. She is the founding director of the new Provostial Center for Indigenous Studies at NYU.

Tuck is Unangax̂ and is an enrolled member of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Alaska. She grew up outside of her community, living in Pennsylvania as a child, and New York City as a young adult. She earned a PhD in Urban Education from The Graduate Center, The City University of New York in 2008.

She is Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities. Tuck is the founding director of the Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab. Under Tuck’s leadership, The Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab released the Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden, and the Land Education Dreambook, in 2022.

Tuck was a William T Grant Scholar (2015-2020) and was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2011-2012). Tuck was recognized in May 2021 with an honorary doctorate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, in Vancouver. She was recognized with a Spencer Foundation Mentor Award in 2022 and the Mike Charleston Award for Distinguished Contributions to Indigenous Education in 2023.

Tuck's work is on collaborative Indigenous research, Indigenous feminisms, and land education. As a whole, her research focuses on how Indigenous social thought can be engaged to create more fair and just social policy, more meaningful social movements, and robust approaches to decolonization.

Tuck also holds an appointment as Professor of Critical Race and Indigenous Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. She makes a podcast with graduate students at OISE, University of Toronto, called The Henceforward, on relationships between Indigenous and Black communities on Turtle Island.

Tuck is co-editor with K. Wayne Yang of a book series with Routledge, titled Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education. To learn more about the series and proposing a book to the series, click here. From 2015-2019, Tuck was the co-editor with K. Wayne Yang of Critical Ethnic Studies, a journal published by University of Minnesota Press.

Tuck is the author of more than 25 peer reviewed articles. Her most widely-engaged articles include "Suspending Damage, a letter to communities," published by Harvard Educational Review in 2009; "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor," co-authored with K. Wayne Yang and published in 2012 by Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society, "Breaking Up with Deleuze" published in 2010 by International Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, and "A Glossary of Haunting," co-authored with C. Ree, and “Visiting as an Indigenous Feminist Practice,” with Haliehana Stepetin, Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing, and Jo Billows.

Tuck has been recognized with an early career award from the Committee on Scholars of Color in Education of the American Educational Research Association, and several book and article awards.

She is the co-creator of the Citation Practices Challenge, an effort to be more intentional about our citation practices, to more fully consider the politics of citation

Extended bio

Eve Tuck is an award-winning Indigenous (Unangax̂) scholar who is internationally regarded for her contributions to educational research and Indigenous studies. She has worked closely with diverse urban and rural communities to conduct research that improves education and social policy, particularly for disadvantaged and marginalized youth. Tuck held a prestigious Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2011-2012) to conduct research on Indigenous research ethics. She is a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar (2015-2020), a highly competitive career development award. Tuck is Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities.

Tuck is the founding director of a new Provostial Center for Indigenous Studies at New York University, and is the founding director of the Tkaronto Collaborative Indigenous Research for Communities, Land and Education (CIRCLE) Lab, at the University of Toronto. The physical space of our lab is located at OISE, and includes rooms dedicated to arts- and materials-based research, participatory research with youth and communities, visual and audio research, and community gatherings. Our lab commitments are to social change, supportive openness, and collaboration and collaborative writing.

Tuck has published her research in a range of formats, including notable refereed journals, open-access refereed journals, and books. She has published 25 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the prestigious Harvard Education Review, American Quarterly, Educational Policy, Qualitative Inquiry, and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Her co-authored article, “Decolonization is Not a Metaphor” (2012), was the lead article in the founding issue of the open-access refereed journal Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society.

Tuck founded a groundbreaking book series with Routledge on Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education, which she co-edits with K. Wayne Yang.

Between 2015-2019, Tuck and Yang also served as Co-Editors of the journal, Critical Ethnic Studies, published twice a year by University of Minnesota Press. Over the past five years, Tuck has co-edited five special issues of leading academic journals in education and qualitative research including International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Environmental Education Research, English Journal, Cultural Studies—Critical Methodologies, and Educational Studies.

In addition to scholarly impact, Tuck’s work exemplifies socially engaged research that is conducted with and for the benefit of working class, racialized, and Indigenous communities. Her William T. Grant Foundation project, Migrant Youth, Deferred Action and Postsecondary Outcomes, involved a study examining educational outcomes of school-aged children whose families migrate to the US for seasonal agricultural labor. In New York City, she worked with youth co-researchers to examine the promises and pitfalls of the GED for young people who are pushed out of high schools. Because of the social impact of her work as well as her respectful engagement with communities, Tuck is a sought-after collaborator by NGOs, governments, and community-based organizations.

Tuck was recognized in May 2021 with an honorary doctorate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, in Vancouver. She was recognized with a Spencer Foundation Mentor Award in 2022, and the Mike Charleston Award for Distinguished Contributions to Indigenous Education in 2023. In 2014, Tuck was recognized with an Early Career Award by the Committee on Scholars of Color in Education of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  Tuck has won two book awards from AERA, including Outstanding Edited Volume from Division B: Curriculum Studies (2015) and Outstanding Book Award from the Qualitative Research Special Interest Group (2013). She has held prominent leadership roles in the association, including an appointed role as Program Co-Chair of Curriculum Studies from 2015-2017, and elected positions on the Special Interest Group (SIG) Executive Committee and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SIG. Tuck also won a Critics Choice Book Award from the American Educational Studies Association in 2013.

Tuck is an enrolled members of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Alaska.