Sovereignty, Coloniality, and Indigeneity

Undergraduate / Graduate

This graduate seminar engages the political theories of sovereignty that inform contemporary Indigenous governance and social mobilization today. Beginning with a historical exploration of the moral, intellectual, and legal trajectories of fundamental concepts such as property, citizenship, territory, and nationhood, we will then explore the varied geographic and colonial contexts in which they have been contested by Indigenous polities. While we will draw heavily upon Indigenous ethnographic literature, we will also read texts from the interdisciplinary fields of history, geography, and cultural studies. In so doing, we analyze the productive tension these concepts might hold for theorizing an anthropology of settler colonialism and Indigeneity.