Given that “indigenous” is a category without clear demarcations-that can only be formulated in relation to something deemed less indigenous-this course explores how claims to indigenity have been represented in relation to land and governance, focusing on media of representation, including art, literature, and architecture. In light of recent international movements seeking to establish a framework of “indigenous rights” within the rubric of “universal rights”, this course takes note of certain aesthetic corollaries to this negotiation of the universalizable exception. Specifically, we will ask how art and architecture-often associated with place, stability, and longevity-operate in relation to the movements of people or their re-settlement. Relatedly, we will ask how literature both unites people under the rubric of nationality while also operating across national boundaries. Readings will focus on forms of land use, aesthetic representations of land, and relations between land and nation. Finally, we will ask whether claims to political rights and participation must always be rooted (so to speak) in practices of land tenure. The scope of the course is broadly global and focused mostly on the eighteenth through twentieth centuries, although several readings deal with more distant eras.
This seminar is open to undergraduate students from all disciplines and should be of especial interest to students of history, anthropology, art history, engineering, and the biological sciences. Open to graduate students with permission from instructor.
This course is intended to expand students’ historical and critical perspectives on an issue of pressing contemporary importance, touching on the future of rights of both “indigenous” people and migrants. Students will research a topic of their choosing in greater depth and develop maps and texts that illustrate overlapping and perhaps conflicting approaches to land use.
