New Worlds, Indigenous Futures
AMST 292
Spring 2022
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01
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Indigenous Futurism describes a cultural turn to emphasizing not only the presence of Native peoples in contemporary settler colonial societies but to declaring their resurgence in a transformed future. Since the 2010s, Native American and First Nations writers, artists, and online communities have increasingly used "futurism" to invoke de-colonial horizons and also to describe long-standing tendencies to use science fiction vocabulary and imagery to explore themes of displacement, alienation, and survival. This course will explore these themes in 20th- and 21st-century Indigenous culture in the United States and Canada and consider why the future is a temporal terrain of struggle for Indigenous peoples. In the progress-obsessed orientation of colonial time, Indigenous peoples are often assigned to the past, yet Indigenous political and cultural movements continue to insist on their role in shaping our planetary futures. We will begin from an understanding of Indigenous Futurism's influence from and conversation with Afrofuturism and then pursue topics such as: Indigenous uses of digital technology, the ethics of land stewardship in outer space, and the political implications of nonlinear time.
The course will have an emphasis on speculative literature and theoretical texts by Indigenous authors, including two anthologies of Indigenous speculative fiction, and we will also delve into films (ex. "Black Panther"), music (ex. A Tribe Called Red), and visual cultures by contemporary artists (ex. Jeffrey Gibson). |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, edited by Grace Dillon
Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, edited by Joshua Whitehead
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly reading responses, One in-class presentation (solo or paired), mid-term exam, final speculative scholarship project |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Cornum,Lou Times: ...W... 07:10PM-10:00PM; Location: FISK414; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 6 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 4 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 2 | FR: 3 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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