Call for Course Proposals from the Department of American Indian Studies
| November 2, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
The Department of American Indian Studies seeks class proposals for Winter 2012 through Spring 2013.
A list of AIS classes is available at:
http://www.washington.edu/students/crscat/ais.html
We are especially interested in receiving proposals to teach the following classes:
AIS 110: Musical Traditions of Native North America
AIS 201: Introduction to American Indian Histories
AIS 203: Introduction: Philosophical and Aesthetic Universes
However, we would like to receive proposals for various courses from instructors with a wide variety of backgrounds. Ideal candidates will have teaching experience and familiarity with tribal communities. MA/PhD preferred.
Please send a one-page course description and CV to Tom Colonnese, AIS Chair, at buffalo@uw.edu.
American Indian Studies is seeking proposals for adjunct teaching. We have not received funding for an additional, full-time position. We will only be able to add additional classes to the extent that we receive and continue to receive funding for adjunct teaching. We are very eager to reach out and expand our pool of eligible instructors.
Tribal Journeys in the New York Times
| July 29, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
Check out this New York Times article and accompanying slide show about this year’s Tribal Journeys!
2011-2012 Miss Yakama Nation Shanoa Pinkham!
| July 25, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
Congratulations to American Indian Studies major Shanoa Pinkham, who has been crowned Miss Yakama Nation! Shanoa has served the University of Washington community as Director of the American Indian Student Commission with the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW).
Summer course: AIS 360 – Indians in Cinema
| May 26, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
American Indian Studies is offering a special appearance of our popular AIS 360: Indians in Cinema, taught by Carol Warrior, this summer! This is a b-term course, offered MTuWTh 10:50 – 1:00, and, as always, it is VLPA/I&S.
This course focuses on the representation of American Indians in American cinema as central to the formation of the national identity narrative. The “American Indian” is an invented identity: the deployment of “The Indian” says more about the inventors than it does about the diverse people groups the label supposedly denotes. Within particular historical moments, representations of “The Indian” run the gamut between antagonistic dehumanization and sympathetic depictions of actual Indigenous North Americans, so in order to demonstrate such ambivalent trends, we will view and examine a variety of American films. The course will also give attention to filmic self-representation of Indigenous peoples, their resistance to the aforementioned social constructions, and how contemporary North American Indigenous filmmakers choose to represent their own “realities.” VLPA/I&S.
Film list:
Reel Injun
Dances With Wolves
Dance Me Outside
Smoke Signals
The Canary Effect
The Doe Boy
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
The entire list hasn’t been determined yet, but other possible films might include:
Pocahontas
Dead Man
Broken Arrow
The Searchers
Black Robe
The Business of Fancydancing
Last of the Mohicans
Thunderheart
Register today! Keep an eye on the blog for more information! Questions? Contact adviser Elissa Washuta.
Dian Million’s “Felt Theory” Is an Award Finalist!
| May 9, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
Professor Dian Million’s article, “Felt Theory: An Indigenous Feminist Approach to Affect and History,” Wicazo Sa (2009): 53-76, is on the finalist list for Most Though-Provoking Article in Native American and Indigenous Studies Prize for 2009. The 2011 membership of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) will vote on the slate of finalists and the prizes will be awarded at the Third Annual meeting of NAISA in Sacramento, May 19-21, 2011. Balloting took plece via the NAISA website in early 2011.
Native Voices at the Seattle Art Museum
| May 6, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
| Adjusting the Focus: Counterpoints to Media Stereotypes of Native Peoples May 14, 2011 2–4 pm Plestcheeff Auditorium |
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In conjunction with Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves, SAM and Native Voices, University of Washington’s Indigenous Documentary Film Program, examine stereotypes and constructed Indian identities such as those in the Twilight saga films. Join us for screenings of segments from Native Voices’ recent films that provide a counterpoint to racism in the media, and a discussion about imagery, authenticity and real-world implications of misrepresentation.
Free with museum admission.
Registration required if planning to attend.
Cinema of Sovereignty: Tracy Deer (UW Event)
| May 3, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
Friday, May 13th, Forest Club Room, Anderson Hall 207: 7:00 PM
An evening with Tracy Deer
Screening: Club Native (documentary, Deer, Canada, 2008, 90:00)
Saturday, May 14th, 10:00 AM – 12:00 (Noon): COM 306
…Special Master Class with Tracy Deer
[There is a STRICT limit of 20 people for the master class. Please call Canadian Studies Center at (206) 221 - 6374 or Email: canada@uw.edu for reservations.]
Facebook event page here.
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Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of Canada’s finest chroniclers of modern Aboriginal life. She co-directed the feature-length documentary One More River (Rezolution Pictures) about the 2003 agreement between the Cree and Quebec. In 2004, she made Mohawk Girls (Rezolution Pictures/The National Film Board of Canada), a moving portrait of three teenage girls coming of age on her home reserve of Kahnawake, just outside of Montreal.
With numerous projects completed and in development, Tracey is one of the rising stars of Canadian cinema. “Tracey represents the next wave of native filmmaking,” says Adam Symansky, NFB producer of Mohawk Girl and Club Native. “It isn’t based on the past so much as on native communities taking responsibility and control of their future. That is the challenge she is putting out in her films.”
Friday, May 13th, Forest Club Room, Anderson Hall 207, 7:00 PM
An Evening with Tracey Deer
Club Native (documentary, Deer, Canada, 2008, 90:00)
In Club Native, Deer looks deeply into the history and present-day reality of Aboriginal identity. With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve – characters on both sides of the critical blood-quantum line – she reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and reveals the lingering “blood quantum” ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community.
Saturday, May 14th, 10:00 – 12:00, COM 306
Special Master Class with Tracey Deer.
Mohawk Girls (the series, Deer, Canada, 2011, 30:00)
Mohawk Girls is a new half-hour dramatic comedy about four young women figuring out how to be Mohawk in the 21st century. The series centers around four twenty-something Mohawk women trying to find their place in the world. But in a small world where you or your friends have dated everyone on the rez, or the hot new guy turns out to be your cousin, it ain’t that simple. Torn between family pressure, tradition, obligation and the intoxicating freedom of the “outside world,” this fabulous foursome is on a mission to find happiness… and to find themselves.
There is a strict limit to this class of 20. Please call the Canadian Studies Center at (206) 221-6374 or email canada@uw.edu for reservations.
Indigenous Knowledge Systems – 10th Annual NASAA Symposium
| May 2, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Uncategorized |
Please join Native American Students in Advanced Academia (NASAA) for their 10th Annual Symposium of Native and Indigenous graduate research. The theme of this year is Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
Indigenous knowledge systems are represented in many ways. Concepts of relatedness and interconnectedness are embedded in the creation, production and sharing of ways of knowing. These systems inform Indigenous research, scholarship and activism. We invite you to learn as Indigenous and Native graduate students and faculty discuss their work at our 10th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium.
May 13th, 2011–The 10th Annual Symposium. Anderson Hall, The Forest Club Room (Room 207) from 9-4:30.
The keynote will be delivered by Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, Tulalip, from the University of Arizona. Graduate students from several institutions will be presenting their work.
May 13, 2011–Film screening of Club Native by Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer at 7 pm in Anderson Hall (Room 207). May 14, 2011–The Master Class with Tracey Deer will be held in Kane Hall (Walker-Ames Room) from 10 am-2 pm.
American Indian Film Festival at Bellevue College
| April 28, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Events |
On May 5th, 6th, and 7th, 2011, the Eighth Annual Presentation of the American Indian Film Festival will be held at Bellevue College.
Steffany Suttle, a graduate of our Native Voices program, will show three films at the festival.
Awakening of the Spirit
Thursday 9:30, Friday 10:30
7 Minutes ~ 2009 ~ USA ~ Documentary
AWAKENING OF THE SPIRIT is a portrait of Master Carver Robert Peele (Tsimshian-Haida). Peele is now known by the traditional name that was given to him, Saaduuts. He has devoted years to teaching the youth of the Seattle, WA area, Native and non-Native, the traditional way of carving a canoe. As a boarding school survivor he has overcome many challenges over the years. Saaduuts now looks forward to the future, enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, and passing down the traditional ways of carving ensuring that it will live on for many years.
Fry Bread Babes
Friday after 6:45 keynote address
30 Minutes ~ 2008 ~ USA ~ Documentary
FRY BREAD BABES is a short documentary film in which six Native American women discuss issues of body image and identity, candidly and with humor. How were they affected by the lack of Native American women in mass media?
Strong Hearts
Thursday 10:30
17 Minutes ~ 2010 ~ USA ~ Documentary
STRONG HEARTS is an examination of violence against Native American women in major motion pictures, independent film, video games and television mini-series. The violence against Native American women is so common in mass media that it’s become “normalized.” The violence depicted is rooted in a brutal historical record dating from first contact and continues today.
UW Event: “Decolonising Theory: Centering Traditional Knowledge within Indigenous Theorising”
| April 26, 2011 | Posted by elissa under Events |
All are welcome to attend a presentation by Dr. Leonie Pihama, Indigenous Fulbright Scholar visiting from Aotearoa (New Zealand)!
The Presentation will take place at 6:00pm in Room 225 in Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle Campus.
Presentation Title: Decolonising Theory: Centering Traditional Knowledge within Indigenous Theorising
Within the academy theory has been historically constructed in ways that have maintained the centrality of Western thinking. This has been actively challenged by a range of Indigenous Academics who have worked to create decolonising spaces within University settings. The struggle for the affirmation of Indigenous theories has grown significantly in the past 20 years. In Aotearoa (New Zealand) Kaupapa Maori theory has been presented as an Indigenous theoretical framework that is grounded upon Maori language and culture. This presentation provides a discussion and critique of the notion of ‘theorising on’ Indigenous Peoples and argues for the ongoing development and articulation of Indigenous theories by and for Indigenous communities.
For more information on Dr. Leonie Pihama see iwri.org.
