Shannon Speed

This course explores contemporary issues of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Today, even as virtually all nations in the world have voted in favor of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, Indigenous communities, tribes and nations continue to confront a range of issues that challenge their ability to maintain their cultures, govern themselves, and decide their futures. Through films, literature and social science readings, this course looks at those issues, and focuses on how indigenous peoples are actively working to oppose their oppression and create sustainable futures.

Designed as a capstone course for the Indigenous Studies Undergraduate Certificate program, the course enrollment is limited and the course is intensive both in the amount of reading and discussion participation and in the level of analysis expected.

Topics will include: Indigenous People and Nation States, Human Rights, Colonialism, Political Sovereignty/Autonomy, Gender, Land and Territory, Resource Extraction, Migration, Incarceration, and Education.

In this upper-division seminar, designed especially for anthropology majors, students will learn the basics of anthropological research methods, and gain hands-on experience, from an “activist research” perspective.  Coursework in the first four weeks will consider the politics of anthropological research, tracing the evolution from its colonial beginnings, through upheaval and critique in the 1960s and 1970s, to various “post-colonial” responses to these criticisms.  The remainder of the course will focus on one such response, known as “activist anthropology.”  Together we will explore the complexities of activist research methods, while each student conceives and carries out an activist research project in conjunction with an organization in the Austin area. Throughout the remainder of the semester, students are expected to devote an average of 6 to 8 hours a week to their activist research project. 

This proseminar provides a base in politically-engaged, or activist, research. The first weeks will be led by the instructor of record, and will entail readings and discussion on the ethics, politics and practice of engaged research. The remainder of the semester will involve guest lectures and guest-assigned readings, involving faculty from anthropology as well as other departments on campus. The goal of these weeks is to develop an understanding of the breadth and range of perspectives in the theory and methods of activist scholarship.

Requirements:

Final 20 page reflection paper, due in class on the last class day.

10 minute presentation of reflection paper, last class day.

Guest lecturers in fall 2010 will include Jemima Pierre (Anthropology/AADS), Martha Menchaca (Anthropology/Borderlands), Edmund Gordon (Anthropology/AADS), Charles Hale (Anthropology/LLILAS), and Eric Tang (AAADs/Asian American Studies)