The Department of Anthropology Seminar Series showcases the research of faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars as well as providing an opportunity for thematic workshops, roundtables, film screenings, and other events. The series aims to foster an intellectual community where students and faculty in anthropology and related disciplines can come together to discuss contemporary issues and debates in the field. Events in the series will take place every Friday during the fall and winter semesters from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm unless otherwise noted in the schedule below.

Indigenous Speaker Series: On Re-Languaging: From Documentation to Decolonization

Lecture Abstract:

What does it mean to “re-language”?  I offer this term as a proposal and an approach toward change within and across disciplinary fields that investigate linguistic form and practice holistically.  To exemplify re-languaging as a process for addressing marginalization, I reconsider previous fieldwork in three parts: language documentation, language and cultural revitalization, and language in media.  I show that re-languaging happens whether or not we recognize it in the moment through the non-conforming voices, perspectives and linguistic forms that are often the “noise” in a dataset.  It also occurs in relation to the narratives and relationships to people and land that are part of revitalization efforts and expression of Indigenous self-determination.  Additionally, re-languaging addresses the call to “decolonize” the academy by recognizing the limits of decolonization in settler-colonial contexts.  In tandem with reflexive research and collaboration, re-languaging confronts the marginalizing effects of a settler-colonial, “Western” gaze.

Barbra A. Meek is a citizen of the Comanche Nation, professor of anthropology and linguistics, and associate dean for the social sciences at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  She received her PhD in the joint program for Anthropology and Linguistics from the University of Arizona (2001). Her research spans child language socialization, Athabaskan sociolinguistics, language revitalization, and ethno-racial semiotics of Hollywood media.  She currently chairs a task force for the American Anthropological Association charged with addressing the enduring residue of settler-colonialism in Anthropology’s approaches to research with, and defining of, Native American communities.

Cash bar to follow.

The Indigenous Speaker Series is a platform that facilitates conversations about Indigenous identity, resurgence, linguistic reclamation, and belonging. It features prominent Indigenous scholars, artists, storytellers, and activists from across Turtle Island and around the world. The series presented by Memorial University Department of Anthropology in partnership with The Rooms.

Location: The Room Theatre

Date and Time: Wednesday, April  24^th at 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM (NDT)

For more information: https://www.events.therooms.ca/Events/details/id/00004824

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Past Events:

Winter 2023 Seminar: 

"Indigenous Speaker Series: Indigenous Birthworkers and Indigenous Futures - Truth Before Reconciliation" with Dr. Karen Lawford, McMaster University,

Fall 2019 Seminar: 

"Fixing your Gaze on the Sea: Young People, Place, and Local Knowledge in the Faroe Islands" with Dr. Firouz Gaini, Univeristy of the Faroe Islands

Winter 2017 Seminar:

"Ethnography and Theory: Reflections on Fieldwork in an Auto Factory and a UAW Local" with Dr. Sharryn Kasmir, Hofstra University