Introduction to Critical Indigenous Studies for Early Modern Scholars

Name: Introduction to Critical Indigenous Studies for Early Modern Scholars
Start: 2023-10-27T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2023-11-17T15:00:00-06:00
Location: Introduction to Critical Indigenous Studies for Early Modern Scholars

Led by Lehua Yim (Independent Scholar)

Oct 27–Nov 17, 2023

1:00pm–3:00pm

Fridays, October 27–November 17, 2023 1:00–3:00 PM Central Time

Online – Virtual via Zoom

A multi-week reading group introducing early modern scholars to major issues in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) and Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS).

Photograph of a 2012 visit by Mayan elders from Chichicastenango, Guatemala to bless the Popol Vuh (VAULT Ayer MS 1515)

Description

"Indigeneity" is a term in a non-Indigenous language strategically appropriated by Native Nations, Peoples, and communities in an extended struggle with settler colonial polities/societies and (especially) Anglo-European power/knowledge production. It is not an essence, and it should not be used as an identity category to be re-captured and re-integrated into multiculturalism or commodification.

This reading group will introduce readers to select works from the large, complex, twinned fields of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) and Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS). Our reading aims to provide an introduction to major issues in NAIS/CIS with a critical examination of why early modern studies should learn from NAIS/CIS.

Over the course of four weeks, participants will read and discuss these selected works in order to identify central analytics and best practices meant to unsettle colonizing premises and tropes at work in early modern studies.