Author Archives: David Gaertner
Repression and the Settler Gothic
The horror novel ‘says, in a symbolic way, things we would be afraid to say right out straight… it offers us a chance to exercise… emotions which society demands we keep closely at hand.’ —Stephen King In the British Gothic tradition, what returns from the repressed is that which has been subjugated by Enlightenment sensibility: […]
Listen to Recoding Relations!
Check out our 4-part audio mini-series on Indigenous new media. Produced by David Gaertner, Melissa Haberl, and Autumn Schnell. All 4 episodes available for download and streaming here.
Decolonial DH?: The Maker Movement Across Indigenous Studies and the Digital Humanities
Text from my keynote for DHSI@Congress. June 5, 2019. Good morning! It is so wonderful to be here with here with you during Congress 2019. This community has meant so much to me in my career, first as a grad student and now as a teacher and researcher, so it’s an honour to be with […]
Review: Katherena Vermette, river woman
Toronto: Anansi, 2018. Pp. 118. Softcover, $19.95. I need to hear the stories of the river about when she was young and her brown water clean loved -Katherena Vermette, “riverstory” The Red River, the focus of Katherena Vermette’s second book of poetry, river woman, begins its journey north at the confluence of the rivers Bois […]
Call for Abstracts: Indigenous Relationality Workshop
Call for Abstracts Indigenous Relationality Workshop At the annual meeting of the Prairie Political Science Association (PPSA) September 14, 2019 Treaty Seven, Banff, AB We invite scholars, students, artists, activists and community leaders to submit presentation abstracts for the Indigenous Relationality Workshop (IRW) held during the PPSA annual meeting. The IRW hopes to create a […]
Best Practices for Approaching Indigenous Studies through the Digital Humanities
The following list was compiled out of the Symposium for Indigenous New Media (#SINM18), which was held as part of the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) in June, 2018. We welcome your feedback and suggestions in the comments below. 1) Be a good relation: build meaningful relationships with community and individuals and resist parachute DH-ing. […]
The Research Essay: 10 Tips for Success
Originally compiled for FNIS 220 These tips are for students researching creative works (e.g. poetry, novels, film, visual art, video games) in the field of Indigenous studies. After selecting your primary text (e.g. This Wound is a World, “Welcome to your authentic Indigenous experience,” A Red Girl’s Reasoning, etc.) you should: 1) Brainstorm a research question: […]
Reconciliation: “Like an Echo Turned Inside Out”
On the penultimate page of her 2017 dystopian speculative fiction novel, The Marrow Thieves, Métis author and editor Cherie Dimaline evokes the sound of an echo as a means elucidate the reunification of two residential school surviours: The scene is significant for a number of reasons, not least of all because it contains the only […]
Towards a Methodology of Closure
The colonial gaze is characterized not only by scopophilia, a drive to look, but also by an urge to penetrate, to traverse, to know, to translate, to own and exploit. The attitude assumes that everything should be accessible to those with the means and will to access them. (David Garneau, “Imaginary Space of Conciliation and […]
FNIS 220: Representation and Indigenous Cultural Politics
FNSP 220 explores the ways that Indigenous peoples seek to overcome the legacies of settler colonialism and claim sovereignty and self-determination through cultural production and critique. In this course, we will examine contemporary articulations of Indigenous identity, politics, and cultural traditions in the fields of literature, film, video games, and other modes of resurgent cultural […]
