Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative announces new seminar series

Sept. 9, 2021

Indigenous women in jingle dresses in front of a crowd of water protectors.
Water Protectors at Standing Rock. Photo by Erin Tapahe

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton (NAISIP) seeks to increase awareness and understanding of the cultural traditions and experiences of Indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere and globally. It has formed a working group consisting of faculty, staff and students from across the disciplines and the University, and this fall it presents a seminar series that brings leading Native scholars, artists and activists to campus as a way of fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue in our community and beyond.

The seminar series is a Collaborative Humanities Project of the Humanities Council, supported by a 2021-22 Exploratory Grant. These council grants help to spark new collaborations at Princeton and to develop multi-institutional collaborations and scholarly networks across the globe.

Convened by Sarah Rivett, professor of English and American studies, the NAISIP working group designed the seminar series to rethink the academic domains of knowledge and power in order to transform Indigenous-settler relationships. Its first speaker is Nick Estes, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and professor in the American studies department at the University of New Mexico, who reconsiders two decades of terror wars as a continuation of the Indian wars by examining the criminalization of Indigenous resistance and the present danger of climate.

Details about the four seminars in the NAISIP series are below. Each event is scheduled for 12 noon to 1:30 PM in Scheide Caldwell House, Room 209.

Pre-registration is required for each event, and in-person attendance is capped at 20 participants. Registrations will be confirmed via email on a first come, first served basis. Registrants must be confirmed to attend.

Read the full announcement on the Humanities Council website.