Sovereignty: Reclaiming Voice and Authority

Fall 2003

Faculty:

News and Particulars:

(!) The first class of Sovereignty: Reclaiming Voice and Authority on Tuesday, January 6 is cancelled due to weather.

New! Download the Winter Preview (12k pdf).

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED FROM FALL TO WINTER QUARTER.

The purpose of our program is to identify and contextualize the issues within the framework of sovereignty. The issues of domination and resistance have and continue to mean that sovereignty is experienced locally and played out on the world stage. We might become aware of sovereignty issues when the guns are blazing, buildings collapsing, and people dying. At other times, it is when people participate in elections, speeches are made, treaties signed, councils (elected or hand-picked) are convened, environmental damage is permitted, or an international tribunal tries a corrupt dictator. And on yet other occasions, sovereignty manifests in a community's struggle for political autonomy as well as control over their resources. Not surprisingly, awareness of sovereignty will take us through different disciplines (humanities, Native American studies, history, cultural studies, political science, and law, among others).

Fall quarter we will begin by focusing on the politics of discovery, and the resulting effect it had on other societies. We will then consider how Indigenous communities in North America view sovereignty. Finally, we will examine the new American imperialism and its implications for culture and identity. We will prepare students for Winter quarter, when we will more closely deconstruct the challenges to and strengthening of sovereignty by nationalist indigenous rights movements, global efforts at decolonization, and through art and literature.