Class Description
Drawing on science fiction, horror, speculative storytelling, graphic arts, and video, this course investigates how Indigenous artists imagine futures grounded in ancestral knowledge, community resilience, and radical hope.
We will examine how creators subvert colonial narratives by reclaiming timelines, mythologies, and technologies, and how they use genre to address survivance, climate justice, intergenerational trauma, and Indigenous sovereignty. Through creative works and secondary readings rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and literary criticism, participants will engage in collective discussion and critical reflection.
Students will learn to identify the strategies used by Native authors and artists to decolonize speculative genres, and to center Indigenous methodologies. Emphasis will be placed on amplifying Native voices and rethinking the limits of Western literary canons. No previous background in science fiction or Indigenous studies is necessary; this course is designed for a broad, curious, and respectful audience.
Content warning: These works by Native writers often refer to the history of their peoples in the colonial context of the United States and Canada. They contain explicit passages relating to colonial violence, genocidal policies, and systemic racism, as well as references to physical violence, family trauma, sexual abuse, and mental illness.
Léna Remy-Kovach is a lecturer and translator in Indigenous Studies. She specializes in contemporary Native literature. She lives in Teejop, also known as Madison, Wisconsin, on traditional Ho-Chunk territory.
All virtual classes are recorded and made available to participants registered in the class. These recordings are password-protected and available for up to two weeks after the class ends.
What to Expect
Format: Virtual
Class Capacity: 20
Class Style: Mix of lecture and discussion; participation encouraged
Materials List
Required
- Instructor-Distributed Materials, potentially including excerpts from the following:
- The Marrow Thieves (2017), Empire of Wild (2019) by Cherie Dimaline
- “The Whalebone Parrot” (2017), Elatsoe (2020), by Darcie Little Badger
- Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology (2022), by Hope Nicholson (ed.)
- “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™” (2017), Trail of Lightning (2018), by Rebecca Roanhorse
- Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology (2023), by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (eds.)
- Bawaajigan: Stories of Power (2019), by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith (eds.)
- Mapping the Interior (2017), The Only Good Indians (2020) by Stephen Graham Jones
- Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction (2012), by by Grace L. Dillon (ed.)
- Wrist (2016), Ghost Lake (2020), by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler
- Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (2020), by Joshua Whitehead (ed.)
First Reading
- TBD (The instructor will inform you about one week before class starts)
A Brief Syllabus
- Imagining Otherwise: What is Indigenous Futurism?
- Time, Memory, & Alternative Temporalities
- Language, Technology, & Storytelling Across Media
- Resistance, resilience, & Environmental Justice
- Hauntings & Horror: Indigenous Gothic & Speculative Realism
- Visionary Sovereignty: Reclaiming the Future
Cost and Registration
6 Sessions, $270 ($243 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($270), Community Supported ($250), and Sponsor ($290). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
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