American Indian Studies Spring Colloquium

Despite intense colonial efforts to destroy traditions of gender and sexual diversity, queer and trans Indigenous people have nonetheless managed to hold onto memories of the history of "folks like us." By following the records of several words for nonbinary genders in archival documents and oral tradition, this talk will trace the legacy of kinship that exists between past and present queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Anishinaabe people. These efforts in turn are vital for ensuring a future for Two-Spirit folks within Indigenous communities.

Kai Pyle is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois. Dr. Pyle holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Their current project draws on methods from linguistics, history, literary studies, and visual studies to examine the ways that queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Anishinaabe people have memorialized their history through the maintenance of kinship relations across time and space. They have additional research interests in Métis history, transnational Indigenous feminism, Indigenous language revitalization (especially of Michif and Anishinaabemowin), transgender studies, and Black and Native relationality in North America.

Download a flyer here: https://tribalrelations.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1359/2022/02/March2022Colloquium.png

Register for this Zoom event at https://tinyurl.com/marchcolloquium (use passcode AISEVENTS)