(Anthropology/ Religious Studies, McGill University)
“Materialism and Consumption: Circulating Christian Love with American Things”
March 21, 2023, 3.00-4.30pm, 02.102 (Philo II, Jakob-Welder-Weg 20)
Please join us for a short presentation and discussion with Prof. Hillary Kaell (Anthropology/Religious Studies, McGill University) of the chapter “Materialism and Consumption: Circulating Christian Love with American Things” from her book Christian Globalism at Home: Child Sponsorship in the United States (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Materialism and Consumption: Circulating Christian Love with American Things
For two hundred years, Christians have run charitable projects to “sponsor” children abroad. Through these plans, individuals in the Global North—notably in the United States–send money to support an individual child in need. The popularity of these plans rested, in part, on how they offered donors what amounted to consumer choice: one could choose what type of child to support. However, by the 1970s Christian donors began to worry about their own “materialism” and its effects on child sponsorship. Based on my recent book Christian Globalism at Home (Princeton University Press, 2020), this presentation will explore the tight link between sponsorship and early forms of capitalism, along with the “anti-materialist” tactics that sponsors use to soften the ambivalence inherent in this form of global charitable giving.
On Nov 10 the Obama Institute will hold an info session on its Direct Exchange programs. Please join us in room P 11 (Philosophicum) for more information about the exciting exchange opportunities!
Nov 10, 18:00-20:00 (s.t.)
P 11 (Philosophicum)
Please find all details about the session on the flyer, which is available for download here and on the Exchange page, where you can also browse general information on the programs in order to get a headstart on what your options are and what an application would entail.
Looking forward to talking to you in person on Nov 10, when we will be happy to answer all your questions!
Date: July 6-9, 2022 Location: Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz Hosted by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies and the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Venues: Atrium Maximum, Campus JGU Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HIM) Faculty Room, Philosophicum I
We are delighted to welcome you to Mainz in July this year for the “Indigenous Print Cultures, Media, and Literatures” Symposium, co-organized by the Obama Institute at JGU and the Humanities Research Center at VCU. Please find the program below or download it here. Additionally, we are happy to provide maps and directions to help you, e.g., get from the hotel to the venues. Please find the maps below the program or click here to download the maps. Public transportation in Mainz will cost you 1,50€ per short distance trip. Additionally, you can download the conference program here.
We will upload a separate document including WiFi access, setting up speaker/participant accounts, as well current Covid-19 regulations and restrictions soon. If you have any questions, please reach out to Anette Vollrath (anette.vollrath@uni-mainz.de).
If you would like to take a look at the hotels’ websites, please feel free to go to Hotel Königshof or Hotel Hammer.
Program
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 (Atrium Maximum, Campus JGU)
16:00 Registration
17:00 Welcome Reception:
Vice-Presidents for Research JGU, Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller-Stach
Vice President for Research and Innovation, VCU, Dr. P. Srirama Rao
Director of the Obama Institute, Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung
Symposium Organizers, Profs. Cristina Stanciu, Oliver Scheiding
17:45 In-person Keynote Lecture
Chair: Mark Rifkin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca, Professor of Gender and American Indian Studies, University of California, Los Angele). “Carrying Our Ancestors Home: The Importance of Storytelling, Digital Projects, and Centering Tribal Voices”
18:30 Virtual Keynote Lecture
Gerald Vizenor (UC Berkeley, Emeritus), “Waiting for Wovoka: Scenes from a Novel of Good Cheer and Native Hand Puppet Parleys”
19:00 Reception (Atrium Maximum)
Thursday, July 7, 2022 (Venue: Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HMI))
9:00-10:30 Session 1
Indigenous Print Cultures and Language
Chair: Jutta Ernst (U of Mainz)
Noenoe Silva (UH Manoa): “The Twentieth-Century Hawaiian-Language Newspapers”
Christopher Pexa (U of Minnesota). “‘Bringing the Language Together’: Ochéti Šakówiŋ Pasts and Futures in the Iapi Oaye (The Word Carrier) Newsletter”
Philip Round (U of Iowa): “The Role of Indigenous Languages in the Production of Native Texts/Periodicals at the End of the Nineteenth Century”
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 Session 2
A Lasting Legacy of Periodicals and Politics
Chair: Mark Rifkin (UNC Greensboro)
Adam Spry (Emerson College), “The Demosthenes of White Earth: Theodore Beaulieu, The Progress, and the Recovery of an Indigenous Intellectual Tradition”
Jill Doerfler (U of Minnesota, Duluth), “‘A Few Honest Words’: Writing for the Anishinaabeg Today in the Twenty-first Century”
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:45-15:15 Session 3
Boarding School Publications
Chair: Cristina Stanciu (Virginia Commonwealth U) and Frank Newton (U of Mainz)
Lionel Larré (Université Bordeaux-Montaigne), “A Magazine not only About Indians, but Mainly by Indians: Native Representations in the Carlisle Publications at the Beginning of the 20th Century”
Frank Newton (U of Mainz), “Indigenous Dialogues: Early 20th Century Native American Discourse in Boarding School Publications”
Jane Griffith (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada), “Nineteenth Century Printing Programs and Indian Boarding Schools: What Archival Newspapers Reveal About Settler Colonialism Today” (Zoom)
15:15-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-17:00 Session 4
Indigenous New Media and Literature
Chair: Philip Round (U of Iowa)
Bethany Hughes (U of Michigan), “Little Chahta News Bird: Biskinik and Twitter as Sovereign Spaces”
Dallas Hunt (U of British Columbia). “The Archive in Conflict: The Contours of Resource Extraction Literatures in Canada”
17:30-18:30 Keynote Lecture (Zoom)
Chair: Chadwick Allen (U of Washington)
Beth Piatote (UC Berkeley): “The Indigenous Archive and The Beadworkers: Stories“
19:15 Reception (City Hall, Mayor-Mainz)
Friday, July 8, 2022 (Venue: Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HMI))
9:00-10:30 Session 5
Indigenous Writing, Rights, and Activism
Chair: Matt Bokovoy (U of Nebraska Press)
Cari M. Carpenter (West Virginia University), “‘What the Curious Want to Know’: Ora Eddleman Reed Advising Land Development and Rejecting Racial Stereotypes in Indian Territory”
Cristina Stanciu (Virginia Commonwealth U), “Gender and the Editors of the Indian Boarding School Press”
Miranda Johnson (U of Otago, New Zealand), “Indigenous Writing, Indigenous Rights: Activisms in the Post-War South Pacific”
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 Session 6
Progressive Era Indigenous Periodicals and Magazines
Chair: Frank Newton (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz)
Jonathan Radocay (UC Davis), “California Indian Paper Routes: Winnemem Wintu Futures in Progressive-Era Periodicals”
René Dietrich (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), “Literary Sovereignty and the Politics of Indigenous Anthologies”
12:30-13:45 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Session 7
Indigenous Printscapes and Indigeneity
Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz)
Kathryn Walkiewicz (UC, San Diego), “Indigenous Printscapes: Media Culture in Late Nineteenth-Century Indian Territory”
Frank Kelderman (U of Louisville), “Children’s Pages, Indigenous Writing: Reframing Labor, Learning, and Leisure, 1880-1913”
Mark Rifkin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), “Indians Gone ‘Wild’: The Politics of Ethnographic Form in Zitkala-Ša’s Stories”
15:30-16:00 Coffee Break
16:00-17:30 Session 8
Project Presentations: Indigenous Modernities
Chair: Chris Andersen (U of Alberta)
Kirby Brown (U of Oregon, Eugene), Co-editor of the Routledge Handbook to North American Indigenous Modernisms(2022)
Oliver Scheiding (U of Mainz), Editor of Anthology Project: “Indigenous Periodicals: American Indian Newspapers and Magazines, 1880-1930”
Chadwick Allen (U of Washington Seattle), “Canoeing the Whale: Fred Graham’s Te Waiata o the Moana-nui-a-Kiwaat the Burke Museum(s)”
19:00-23:00 Dinner at “Strausswirtschaft Peter Dohm, Mainz” (Vinery Peter Dohm). Local transportation will be provided. http://winzerfamilie-peter-dhom.de
Saturday, July 9, 2022 (Venue: Faculty Room, Philosophicum I)
10:00-11:00 Final Discussion, Roundtable
Chadwick Allen, Cari Carpenter, Mishuana Goeman, Mark Rifkin, Philip Round, Oliver Scheiding
Maps (Hotels, Campus, Venues)
Map 1: Mainz Central Station to Hotel Hammer / Hotel Königshof
Map 2: Mainz Central Station to Mainz University Campus
Map 3: Mainz University Campus and Symposium Venues
Fig. 1: Venues: Atrium Maximum (top left), Philosophicum I (top right), Helmholtz-Institute (bottom)
Als Alternative zum Mainstream wollen unabhängige Zeitschriften, sogenannte indie mags, vieles anders machen. Trotz des oft beschworenen Niedergangs von Print boomt der Indie-Zeitschriftenmarkt seit den 2010ern ungebrochen. Im Independent-Bereich trifft außergewöhnliches Design auf unterrepräsentierte Themen und neue Perspektiven. Zum Beispiel verwenden marginalisierte Gruppen Zeitschriften als Sprachrohr für Anliegen, die im Mainstream-Markt keine Plattform finden. Migrantische und sexuelle Minderheiten nutzen Magazine als gemeinschaftsbildende Darstellungsformen. Andere Indies zielen auf alternative Lifestyles, Hobbies, Sport, Mode und Design. Das Alltägliche und Gewöhnliche wird durch die künstlerische Gestaltung ungewöhnlich.
Die Ausstellung ist als walk-by exhibition konzipiert. Durch Magazine exemplarisch illustriert werden die vier Bereiche Print/Digital, Cover, Zeit/Alltag und Sprache.
Daniel H. Wilson is Cherokee author from Portland, Oregon. He is an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author and robotics engineer. He is the author of Robopocalypse, Amped, and The Clockwork Dynasty, among other publications.
He earned an M.S. in Robotics and in Machine Learning, and a Ph.D. in Robotics in 2005 at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His thesis work, entitled Assistive Intelligent Environments for Automatic Health Monitoring, focused on providing automatic location and activity monitoring in the home via low-cost sensors such as motion detectors and contact switches. He has worked as a research intern at Microsoft Research, the Xerox PARC, Northrop Grumman, and Intel Research Seattle. Also, he hosted a series on the History Channel entitled The Works, where he explained the hidden workings of everyday items.
In this guest lecture, Daniel H. Wilson is going to talk to us about his novel Robopocalypse. In the near future, a massively powerful artificial intelligence called Archos is created and cannot be contained. In those early months, only a handful of technological glitches are noticed by humans, as Archos starts to take over our cars, aircraft guidance systems, military robots, and computer networks – enslaving the entire global system that runs our lives. Then comes Zero Hour: The robot war suddenly ignites and as all the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us, the human race is both decimated and for the first time in history, united. In the devastation that follows, humankind must destroy its own civilization to survive.
In the context of contemporary Indigenous Literature, Robopocalypse is revolutionary. It tackles issues of kinship, panhumanism, and indigenous futurism. The latter, employs tropes of science fiction to convey a decolonial narrative. Through techniques such as slipstream, worldbuilding, and First Contact scenarios, Robopocalypse constructs a speculative future that forces the reader to redefine the notion of humanity as such.
