Amanda Daniela Cortez | Department of Anthropology

Assistant Professor

Biography

Dr. Amanda Daniela Cortez is a Mexican-American cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. She received her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame. Before joining the department, she held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Connecticut and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also held a full-time faculty position at Clatsop Community College.

Dr. Cortez’s research draws from anthropology, Indigenous studies, and animal studies to address ongoing colonial structures of power that affect humans and other beings and is grounded in anti-colonial and collaborative approaches. Her current book project, Multispecies Coloniality: Indigeneity, Gender, and More-than-Human Relating in the Peruvian Andes, is a multispecies ethnography that centers Quechua women and their llama, alpaca, and sheep kin as they navigate photographic tourism in Cusco, Peru, and negotiate the politics of Indigeneity against the state. The book contends that the negotiation and regulation of Indigeneity is a multispecies project. More specifically, it considers the ways that relations between Quechua women and their animal kin are both weaponized by the state to wield authority over Indigeneity and offer Quechua women avenues of refusing state control. This work is done in collaboration with her co-thinkers in Cusco.

Previously, Dr. Cortez’s research addressed the ethics of paleogenomic studies with Indigenous Ancestors. This work aimed to better understand the ethical landscape of ancient DNA research and advance ethical and Indigenous-led paleogenomics.

Research Interests

Multispecies ethnography, multispecies relationality, politics of Indigeneity, gender, visual anthropology, collaborative and community-based research, research ethics, Andean Perú

Education

2019 PhD Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

2016 MA Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

2014 BA Anthropology with Honors, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Grants

2026 Humanities Research Institute Summer Faculty Fellowship

2026 Illinois Global Institute INSURE Grant

Courses Taught

ANTH 126 Humans and Animals - Food or Friend?

ANTH 515 The Politics of Indigeneity Across the Americas

Additional Campus Affiliations

McNair Scholars Program Faculty Mentor

Recent Publications

Hoffman, A. D., Cortez, A. D., Davis, J. L., Bishop, K. J., de Flamingh, A., & Malhi, R. S. (2026). In Dire Straits: The Resurrection and Extraction of the Dire Wolf, and the Current Colonial Basis of De-extinction Science. Ethnobiology Letters, 17(1), 53-66.

Kowal, E., Weyrich, L. S., Argüelles, J. M., Bader, A. C., Colwell, C., Cortez, A. D., Davis, J. L., Figueiro, G., Fox, K., Malhi, R. S., Matisoo-Smith, E., Nayak, A., Nelson, E. A., Nicholas, G., Nieves-Colón, M. A., Russell, L., Ulm, S., Vergara-Silva, F., Villanea, F. A., Wagner, J. K., Yracheta, J. M., & Tsosie, K. (2023). Community partnerships are fundamental to ethical ancient DNA research. Human Genetics and Genomics Advances, 4(2).

Cortez, A. D., Bolnick, D. A., Nicholas, G., Bardill, J., & Colwell, C. (2021). An ethical crisis in ancient DNA research: Insights from the Chaco Canyon controversy as a case study. Journal of Social Archaeology, 21(2), 157-178.