This essay extends Joseph Slaughter’s argument that the genre of the novel and human rights disco... more This essay extends Joseph Slaughter’s argument that the genre of the novel and human rights discourse are “mutually enabling fictions,” by examining three novels by the celebrated Native American author Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) created in the wake of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). UNDRIP presented a significant innovation in human rights discourse, extending the concept of human rights not just to individuals but to whole communities and transnational collectivities of Indigenous people. Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016) have been grouped together as her “Justice Trilogy” for their common thematic exploration of justice as a concept in its various legal, theological, metaphysical, and personal meanings. And yet the books all remain essentially unsatisfying in their inability to resolve the central question of whether justice was, or ever can be, done. I propose that this is because the real aim of the books is not to elaborate on a unitary concept of justice at all, but rather to think through the problem of the enabling conditions of justice, namely human rights. Together, the novels loosely describe a history of human rights discourse related to Native Americans, with The Plague of Doves exploring the absence of human rights and the impossibility of justice in the moment of non-Indigenous settlement of the Great Plains, and The Round House exploring justice and human rights in the context of the compromised sovereignty of reservations during the era of “self-determination.” The final book, LaRose, explores problems of justice, mourning, and revenge in the context of a fictional world in which cultural rights and Indigenous sovereignty are taken as givens; in other words, within a regime of human rights similar to what is proposed in UNDRIP.
Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association , 2021
This paper is about the place of Indigenous people in an early instance of a culture war in the U... more This paper is about the place of Indigenous people in an early instance of a culture war in the United States: the conflict in the 1970s over an innovative middle-grades social studies curriculum called “Man: A Course of Study” (MACOS). Funded by the National Science Foundation, MACOS sought to revamp social studies education by addressing big questions about humans as a species and as social animals. It quickly came under fire from conservatives and helped to solidify the concept of “secular humanism” as a social threat. A broad conservative organizing effort, whose effects can still be felt today, eventually ended not only MACOS, but the very viability of school curriculum reform projects on the national level. Though this story is familiar to historians of American education, this paper argues for its centrality to the development of contemporary conservative politics and the early history of the culture wars. It also takes up the largely unaddressed issue of how Indigenous people figured in the MACOS curriculum and in the ensuing controversy. Focusing on the ethnographic film series featuring Netsilik Inuit that was at the heart of the MACOS curriculum, this paper addresses the largely unacknowledged legacy of Indigenous pedagogy, to argue that the culture war that led to the demise of the MACOS project also represented a lost opportunity for Indigenous knowledge and teaching to be incorporated into the formal schooling of American children.
The concept of the commons is central to an argument that connects indigenous people and their st... more The concept of the commons is central to an argument that connects indigenous people and their struggles both to global politics and to radical reconceptualizations of the relationships among knowledges, resources, and human communities. This article considers the use of the idea of a commons in water and atmosphere in the 2016 protest on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. It also contextualizes the concept of the commons in relation to the historical expropriation of land from native peoples in North America.
... Later, in his book review, he appeals to a notion of authenticity based upon the relationship... more ... Later, in his book review, he appeals to a notion of authenticity based upon the relationship of a text to some original Indian performance. The sort of "authenticity" which derives from the opinions of spokespeople from another culture is problematic on a number of grounds. ...
co-authored with Paul Ortiz.
In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the Un... more co-authored with Paul Ortiz.
In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF)-University of Florida to discuss what unions in higher education can do to respond to domestic extremism, and why it’s more important than ever for union members to engage in labor-community coalitions.
This essay addresses the changing meaning of academic freedom and academic labor in the transitio... more This essay addresses the changing meaning of academic freedom and academic labor in the transition from the Cold War to the neoliberal university. Using Robert Oppenheimer as its touchstone example, it argues that academic life in the Cold War was characterized by a contradiction between academic freedom and self-governance and the interests of the state. It proposes a taxonomy of various ways that academics made sense of their work in relation to this contradiction. It then shows how this contradiction shifted with the end of the Cold War and the rise of the neoliberal university, so that state interests are now replaced with those of a neoliberal common sense, organized around private interests and the extraction of value. Finally, it offers some conclusions about the path forward for academics as they come to terms with the meaning of their labor in the neoliberal university. The early Cold War period witnessed a spectacular, theatrical performance of repression of free speech and association, and of academic freedom. And yet this moment, which also saw the explosive growth of American universities and of cutting-edge research, was one in which some core elements of academic freedom, such as faculty governance, actually fared relatively well. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberalism, universities are now organized on the managerial model of the for-profit corporation. With
This essay extends Joseph Slaughter’s argument that the genre of the novel and human rights disco... more This essay extends Joseph Slaughter’s argument that the genre of the novel and human rights discourse are “mutually enabling fictions,” by examining three novels by the celebrated Native American author Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) created in the wake of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). UNDRIP presented a significant innovation in human rights discourse, extending the concept of human rights not just to individuals but to whole communities and transnational collectivities of Indigenous people. Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016) have been grouped together as her “Justice Trilogy” for their common thematic exploration of justice as a concept in its various legal, theological, metaphysical, and personal meanings. And yet the books all remain essentially unsatisfying in their inability to resolve the central question of whether justice was, or ever can be, done. I propose that this is because the real aim of the books is not to elaborate on a unitary concept of justice at all, but rather to think through the problem of the enabling conditions of justice, namely human rights. Together, the novels loosely describe a history of human rights discourse related to Native Americans, with The Plague of Doves exploring the absence of human rights and the impossibility of justice in the moment of non-Indigenous settlement of the Great Plains, and The Round House exploring justice and human rights in the context of the compromised sovereignty of reservations during the era of “self-determination.” The final book, LaRose, explores problems of justice, mourning, and revenge in the context of a fictional world in which cultural rights and Indigenous sovereignty are taken as givens; in other words, within a regime of human rights similar to what is proposed in UNDRIP.
Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association , 2021
This paper is about the place of Indigenous people in an early instance of a culture war in the U... more This paper is about the place of Indigenous people in an early instance of a culture war in the United States: the conflict in the 1970s over an innovative middle-grades social studies curriculum called “Man: A Course of Study” (MACOS). Funded by the National Science Foundation, MACOS sought to revamp social studies education by addressing big questions about humans as a species and as social animals. It quickly came under fire from conservatives and helped to solidify the concept of “secular humanism” as a social threat. A broad conservative organizing effort, whose effects can still be felt today, eventually ended not only MACOS, but the very viability of school curriculum reform projects on the national level. Though this story is familiar to historians of American education, this paper argues for its centrality to the development of contemporary conservative politics and the early history of the culture wars. It also takes up the largely unaddressed issue of how Indigenous people figured in the MACOS curriculum and in the ensuing controversy. Focusing on the ethnographic film series featuring Netsilik Inuit that was at the heart of the MACOS curriculum, this paper addresses the largely unacknowledged legacy of Indigenous pedagogy, to argue that the culture war that led to the demise of the MACOS project also represented a lost opportunity for Indigenous knowledge and teaching to be incorporated into the formal schooling of American children.
The concept of the commons is central to an argument that connects indigenous people and their st... more The concept of the commons is central to an argument that connects indigenous people and their struggles both to global politics and to radical reconceptualizations of the relationships among knowledges, resources, and human communities. This article considers the use of the idea of a commons in water and atmosphere in the 2016 protest on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. It also contextualizes the concept of the commons in relation to the historical expropriation of land from native peoples in North America.
... Later, in his book review, he appeals to a notion of authenticity based upon the relationship... more ... Later, in his book review, he appeals to a notion of authenticity based upon the relationship of a text to some original Indian performance. The sort of "authenticity" which derives from the opinions of spokespeople from another culture is problematic on a number of grounds. ...
co-authored with Paul Ortiz.
In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the Un... more co-authored with Paul Ortiz.
In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF)-University of Florida to discuss what unions in higher education can do to respond to domestic extremism, and why it’s more important than ever for union members to engage in labor-community coalitions.
This essay addresses the changing meaning of academic freedom and academic labor in the transitio... more This essay addresses the changing meaning of academic freedom and academic labor in the transition from the Cold War to the neoliberal university. Using Robert Oppenheimer as its touchstone example, it argues that academic life in the Cold War was characterized by a contradiction between academic freedom and self-governance and the interests of the state. It proposes a taxonomy of various ways that academics made sense of their work in relation to this contradiction. It then shows how this contradiction shifted with the end of the Cold War and the rise of the neoliberal university, so that state interests are now replaced with those of a neoliberal common sense, organized around private interests and the extraction of value. Finally, it offers some conclusions about the path forward for academics as they come to terms with the meaning of their labor in the neoliberal university. The early Cold War period witnessed a spectacular, theatrical performance of repression of free speech and association, and of academic freedom. And yet this moment, which also saw the explosive growth of American universities and of cutting-edge research, was one in which some core elements of academic freedom, such as faculty governance, actually fared relatively well. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberalism, universities are now organized on the managerial model of the for-profit corporation. With
Alphabetical List of Entries vii List of Entries by Topic ix Editors xi Board of Advisors xii Con... more Alphabetical List of Entries vii List of Entries by Topic ix Editors xi Board of Advisors xii Contributors xiv Introduction xvii Acknowledgments xx The Novel A Z 1 Index of Novelists 691 General Index 736
Alphabetical List of Entries vii List of Entries by Topic ix Editors xi Board of Advisors xii Con... more Alphabetical List of Entries vii List of Entries by Topic ix Editors xi Board of Advisors xii Contributors xiv Introduction xvii Acknowledgments xx The Novel A Z 1 Index of Novelists 691 General Index 736
... in Mass Culture," which appeared in the first issue of Social Text, the journal ... more ... in Mass Culture," which appeared in the first issue of Social Text, the journal he started with Stanley Aronowitz in 1979. ... Magazine and "Hattie of Hollywood" (1922) from Photoplay Magazine, Frank Condon's "Hollywood" (1923) from Photoplay Magazine, and Adela Rogers St. ...
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In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF)-University of Florida to discuss what unions in higher education can do to respond to domestic extremism, and why it’s more important than ever for union members to engage in labor-community coalitions.
In this essay, we will draw on our experiences as members of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF)-University of Florida to discuss what unions in higher education can do to respond to domestic extremism, and why it’s more important than ever for union members to engage in labor-community coalitions.