This class will investigate the economic, political, and ideological factors contributing to Indigenous women's oppositional consciousness revealed in intellectual activities such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scholarly writing, political activism, and artistic endeavors such as weaving, quilting, and pottery production. I define intellectual activities broadly in order to incorporate the multiple locations that reveal women's ideas, interests, and worldviews that diverge from standard academic theory. Analyzing works by a wide range of women, including United States Indigenous, Canadian First Nations, Maori, Australian, and Hawaiian, this class will trace Indigenous women's intellectual traditions to identify core themes that form the foundation of Indigenous feminisms.

Required Texts:

• Reinventing the Enemy's Language, eds. Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird
• Women of the First Nations: Power, Wisdom, and Strength, eds. Christine Miller and Patricia Chuchryk
• Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide
• Inés Hernãndez-Avila, Reading Native American Women: Critical/Creative Representations

Plus additional readings