Indigenous Studies PhD candidate earns Smithsonian fellowship

Delaney O’Connell, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and one of the first PhD candidates in UB’s Department of Indigenous Studies, has been awarded a prestigious Smithsonian Institution Fellowship for her work on repatriating artifacts.

Repatriation is the return of human remains, sacred objects and culturally significant materials from museums and collections back to Indigenous communities. One of the questions guiding O’Connell’s repatriation research is, “What does it mean to care for cultural belongings?”

“We know that not all materials are meant to exist forever,” O’Connell says. “Some Indigenous communities purposely ‘kill’ their pots by breaking them or putting small holes in them so the pots don’t work anymore. To be in a museum space and see a killed pot plastered back together is wildly strange and inappropriate.”

O’Connell says the right to destroy cultural property can, in some cases, be part of a wider cultural property rights framework and is arguably more important than assuming preservation is always the best course of action. That perspective has shaped her growing national profile and helped her earn the prestigious Smithsonian fellowship.

O’Connell’s academic path to UB originated in Utah, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Utah. After graduating in winter 2020, she was admitted to UB’s philosophy PhD program and moved to Buffalo with her husband, deferring admission for a year to establish in-state residency while working at Crisis Services of Erie County.

At first, philosophy seemed like the right fit for O’Connell, but in 2021, as public attention turned to the discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada, O’Connell felt a pull to go in a different direction.

“It made me think more about what I’m doing, who I’m doing it for, and it made me ask if what I was doing mattered,” she says.

Seeking a more direct connection between her work and Indigenous communities, O’Connell turned to UB’s Department of Indigenous Studies, where professor and chair Mishuana Goeman became her adviser. Once in the department, O’Connell began building relationships with scholars and practitioners working in repatriation — including at the Smithsonian. She began researching the fellowship process and reaching out to people doing repatriation work at the Smithsonian. One of those connections became the start of an important network of mentors and collaborators.

“Repatriation is 90 percent relationships,” she notes.

Beginning in fall 2023, O’Connell stayed in close contact with mentors, asking questions, meeting over Zoom and learning from their expertise. She visited Smithsonian collections in summer 2024 and later interned there in a hybrid capacity in spring 2025, taking part in consultations and gaining a firsthand understanding of how institutional practices can either support or hinder community trust.

“It was really, really informative. When we were getting ready to meet with different communities, we would talk about our approach — even down to what to wear.”

O’Connell shares an example: “When this community comes, everyone shows up in jeans. So come in a more relaxed way so that you’re not creating barriers between yourself and these folks.”

She used those experiences, along with feedback from mentors, to build her fellowship application.

“It’s just so incredible,” she says. “People that I know at the Smithsonian were texting me and the outflow of support has been really incredible from them, as well as from my home department here in Indigenous Studies. It’s just a joy. I’m really, really excited.”

At UB, O’Connell says the support of faculty, peers and professional development programs has been essential. She says the Department of Indigenous Studies, as well as collaborators across the Graduate School and other disciplines, have had key influences on her development. She also credits the Western New York Prosperity Fellowship with helping her expand her sense of possibility.

“They all instilled a lot of confidence in me in applying for the fellowship,” she says.

 O’Connell is the graduate assistant for graduate professional development at UB and facilitates the Pathway to the PhD – Preparing for Success Microcredential. She is also the outgoing president of the Graduate Student Organization of the Department of Indigenous Studies and just received notification of a UB Humanities Institute Fellowship.

As part of the first graduate cohort in the department, she has also become an informal mentor to newer students, sharing advice while reminding them that each academic journey is different.

“I love being in a mentor position,” she says.

Her research is also expanding beyond the Smithsonian. She’ll spend time studying repatriation practices at the Peabody Essex Museum this summer, where she is especially interested in how museums negotiate the return of Indigenous cultural materials in international contexts not covered by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

“The impact of Delaney’s work will be profound in how we engage with museums and institutions that hold Indigenous cultural materials often collected through the violence of colonialism,” Goeman says. Her rigorous and excellent scholarship creates new pathways for understanding formations of property and museum collections.”

O’Connell says she’s part of a larger, global conversation about museums, justice and accountability.

“I view the work that I’m doing as working for better museums for everybody, not just Native people.”