'Decolonizing Indigenous Sexualities and Research-Creation'

Denison University’s Laura C. Harris Series welcomes Associate Professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment Kim TallBear presenting “Decolonizing Indigenous Sexualities and Research-Creation.”

TallBear established the teaching and research program, Indigenous Science, Technology and Society, which informs “national, global and Indigenous thought and policymaking related to science and technology” to promote Indigenous self-determination. She also studies decolonial and critical sexualities and is co-producer of the radio show, “Tipi Confessions.” Building on lessons learned with geneticists about how race categories get settled, TallBear is currently working on a book that interrogates settler-colonial commitments to settlement in place, within disciplines, and within monogamous, state-sanctioned marriage. She is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota.

TallBear will discuss the University of Alberta Faculty of Native Studies-based RELAB, a “research-creation” or arts-based research group, Indigenous Studies decolonial and relational analytic frameworks as co-constituted with performance, and other creative works. This talk will highlight both Indigenous Studies and arts-based theoretical foundations of the RELAB and its core performance initiatives.

The Laura C. Harris Series theme for 2021-22, “Imagining Together: Indigenous Activisms & Feminisms,” seeks to deepen our knowledge and campus engagement with complex issues in indigeneity, indigenous feminisms, and indigenous-led approaches to solving pressing global and local problems, including Ohio indigenous histories.

Indigenous scholars and activists point to the gendered impacts of settler colonialism and genocide. These include gender-based and sexualized violence in the forcible displacement of Indigenous peoples from land and natural resources, distortions and deliberate destruction of social structures and kinship networks, and the demonizing and erasure of indigenous ways of knowing and being in the world.

For any questions or concerns about accessibility at Kim TallBear’s talk, please contact brownr@denison.edu.

All audience members are required to wear masks.