Social Relationships and Responsibility: Theories and Critiques CRN 23356

Modality - Remote, Synchronous

Critical Indigenous Studies

This course explores key themes and ideas that have been developed within the area of study referenced as Critical Indigenous studies. Collectively, concepts of sovereignty, Indigenous self-determination, epistemology/ways of being, amongst others, are explored in relationship to the nation-state, citizenship, and empire. Some of the major contributions by Indigenous scholars we will cover include settler colonialism, survivance, Native feminisms, by scholars such as Sarah Deer, Jodi Byrd, Eve Tuck, Glen Coulthard, and Lourdes Alberto. Through this course, students will engage with Indigenous informed thinking that will be useful to consider current issues related to the environment, activism, education, and other issues impacting Indigenous communities.

Texts will included selected readings from Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang's article, Decolonization is not a metaphor, Glen Coulthard, Red Skins, White Masks, Sarah Deer's The Beginning and the End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America, Margo Tamez's The Texas-Mexico border wall and Ndé memory" in the book Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis (2012), and other selected chapters and articles.

Credit/Evaluation: Regular attendance, engaged/active participation in all class exercises, engagement in class discussion, strong evidence of reading, quality performance assignments throughout the quarter, quality of writing.