"Making Love and Relations Beyond Settler Sexualities"

As part of the Social Justice Institute Noted Scholars Lecture Series, co-presented by the Ecologies of Social Difference Research Network at the University of British Columbia:

Dr. Kim TallBear
Associate Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta

Feb 24, 12-1pm
Liu Institute, Multipurpose Room
6476 NW Marine Drive, UBC

ABSTRACT: This talk—a developing theoretical intervention—will serve as a provocation to think through the entangled politics of ethical non-monogamy, nurturing extended family and tribal kin formations, and critiques of marriage as integral to the settler colonial project. This examination conceives of indigenous kin making—even that which is seen as disrupted by colonialism and trauma—as a set of practices that are potentially more “environmentally sustainable,” as that is broadly conceived. The speaker invites the audience to think through these entangled issues with her.

BIO: Kim TallBear, author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science, is Associate Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta. Dr. TallBear combines indigenous studies, science and technology studies, feminist and queer theory to interrogate the nature/culture split in Western society and its role in producing related –isms: colonialism, racism, speciesism, sexism, and homophobia, and the accompanying violence done to diverse bodies. Dr. TallBear is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota. She is also descended from the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. She blogs on Indigeneity & Technoscience at www.kimtallbear.com.