Nicolas G. Rosenthal, professor of history in the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, was awarded a 2024 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend. The prestigious grant provided Rosenthal with the time and funds to work on his book manuscript “Painting Native America: Indigenous Artists in the Twentieth Century,” set to be published by the University of Nebraska Press in Fall 2025.
Rosenthal specializes in Indigenous, American West, and 20th Century U.S. history. His research focuses on the intersection of American Indian and modern American culture and society. His forthcoming book delves into generations of Indigenous artists who have sought to make a place for Native art in North American culture and society, and the broader art world. Written at the intersection of history and art history, this book tells the story of Indigenous artists and their experiences negotiating such questions as how to use art for social and political goals, what constitutes “Indian art,” and how to make a living as artists, showing how previous struggles shaped each generation’s approach to these issues. It demonstrates that by “Painting Native America” in museums, galleries, and public spaces, Indigenous artists rewrote dominant narratives of North American history, foregrounding Native perspectives while indigenizing the art world.
The NEH Summer Stipend was instrumental in allowing Rosenthal to complete his manuscript revisions, secure permissions for the seventy illustrations that will enrich the book, and deliver the entire manuscript to his publisher for copyediting just before the onset of the busy fall semester. Rosenthal’s journey to securing the NEH grant was supported by LMU’s Office of the Provost’s Proposal Writing Academy. This program, which offers multiple sessions throughout the year, equips faculty with essential grant-writing skills.
“My colleagues and students throughout the History Department, BCLA, and University have contributed immensely to this project over my past ten years as a teacher and scholar at LMU,” said Rosenthal. “By bringing the perspective of the humanities to questions of racial justice – especially how Indigenous artists have used the arts to pursue issues like cultural and political sovereignty, a history that can inform today’s Indigenous artists and the institutions that support them, so Indigenous art might go even further to empower Native peoples and communities – ‘Painting Native America’ animates the history department, BCLA, and LMU’s shared mission to promote social justice for underrepresented and historically oppressed groups.”
Rosenthal holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and led LMU’s successful effort to establish a chapter of America’s most prestigious academic honor society. His first book, “Reimagining Indian Country: Native American Migration and Identity in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles,” (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), examines the migration of American Indians to urban areas and the formation of urban Indigenous communities.
