Karsten Fitz
(Universität Passau)
Pop Art, Activism, and Indigenous Futurism: The Visual Art of Ryan Singer
Jan 20, 2025, 16:15-17:45, 02.102, Philosophicum II (Jakob-Welder-Weg 20)
Writing against the Western tradition of freezing Native cultures in a long-gone past, Indigenous Futurism has established itself as a movement in the arts that creates Indigenous perspectives in the context of science fiction and related subgenres. This lecture investigates the artwork of Ryan Singer (Navajo) at the intersection of pop art, activism, and Indigenous Futurism. Singer’s artistic engagements with the fictional characters and settings of the Star Wars franchise are read as pop artistic acts of cultural and political decolonization.
Karsten Fitz is professor of American Studies/Cultural and Media Studies at the University of Passau. He is the author of The American Revolution Remembered, 1830s to 1850s: Competing Images and Conflicting Narratives (2011) and co-editor of the book series Transnational Indigenous Perspectives (Routledge). Among others, his research interests include Indigenous Studies, theories of cultural encounters, American cultural memory, visual culture studies, and political culture in transatlantic contexts.
You can download the poster for the event here.
