International Indigeneity
Dr. Manuela Picq, Senior Lecturer of Political Science and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 | 03:00 pm
Zoom
Register at bit.ly/3rdpZec
About:
What do Indigenous peoples have to do with international relations and the foundation of the modern
state? One of the key arguments of this talk is that even as Indigenous peoples and their concern
have appeared quintessentially marginal to the modern state, they are, in fact what holds the modern
state system together. The modern state was, quite literally, defined in relation to Indigenous peoples
(as we demonstrate in Chapter Two). Indigeneity was conceived as the other side of political modernity
and served as Europe’s looking glass even if with the passing of centuries, the image of the savage in
America became implicit rather than explicit. This talk explores Indigenous-state relations to make two
main arguments: the first is that indigeneity is a political identity relational to modern nation-states, the
second that Indigenous politics, although marking the boundary of the state, are co-constitutive of
colonial processes of state-making. Together, these two reasons explain why Indigenous peoples are
important in the study of the international system of states.
This is part of the Indigenous Politics in the Face of the New Right Lecture Series.
Notes:
Register now at bit.ly/3rdpZec. This event is free and open to the public.
