CTSJ 375 Indigenous Feminisms

This course focuses on key themes and topics of Indigenous Feminisms.  In particular, we will discuss how gender, sexuality, land, and sovereignty intersect in different Native communities.  We ask: How do female, queer, two-spirit, gender non-conforming, and feminist Indigenous peoples persist, resist, and thrive in the face of ongoing colonial violence and erasure?  How does settler colonialism intersect with heteropatriarchy, necessitating an intersectional decolonial analysis and response?  In what ways does the protection/empowerment of Native women correspond to the preservation/respect of Native land?  How can an Indigenous feminist epistemology change our conceptualizations of land, water, and spatiality?  What does an Indigenous queer critique contribute to analyses of militarism, imperialism, and settler colonialism?  

Case studies and examples are drawn from Turtle Island (North American continent), the Pacific Islands, and Palestine.  Authors to be discussed include Mishuana Goeman, Audra Simpson, Haunani-Kay Trask, and Kim TallBear.