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“Naked Indians: ‘Not as Revolting as One Might Think’”

September 8, 2022 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

headshot of Joseph Pierce
Photograph by Sebastián Freire

In Collaboration with American Indian & Indigenous Studies,

Join us for a virtual presentation & discussion with Joseph M. Pierce:

“Naked Indians: ‘Not as Revolting as One Might Think’”

September 8, 2022 @ 5PM EST

Description: Settlers have viewed Indigenous bodies as objects of erotic ambivalence. The Indian is naked in colonial eyes. And the nakedness of the Indian is itself a project of discovery in which the body is subjected to aesthetic and epistemological scrutiny. This scrutiny is not value neutral, and participates in the gendered dynamic by which Europeans imagined Indigenous peoples as naive and deviant, but also potentially beautiful. Amerigo Vespucci would write about the Indigenous women he observed, “they are not as revolting as one might think.” This and other depictions of indigenous bodies focus on the matter of the flesh but also how the unclothed Indian represents both an object of desire and revulsion. This presentation will discuss what the naked Indian means, and how Indigenous people have repurposed the significance of nakedness over time.

Joseph M. Pierce is Associate Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University. His research focuses on the intersections of kinship, gender, sexuality, and race in Latin America, 19th century literature and culture, queer studies, Indigenous studies, and hemispheric approaches to citizenship and belonging. He is the author of Argentine Intimacies: Queer Kinship in an Age of Splendor, 1890-1910 (SUNY Press, 2019) and co-editor of Políticas del amor: Derechos sexuales y escrituras disidentes en el Cono Sur (Cuarto Propio, 2018) as well as the 2021 special issue of GLQ, “Queer/Cuir Américas: Translation, Decoloniality, and the Incommensurable.” His work has been published recently in Revista Hispánica Moderna, Critical Ethnic Studies, Latin American Research Review, and has also been featured in Indian Country Today. Along with S.J. Norman (Koori of Wiradjuri descent) he is co-curator of the performance series Knowledge of Wounds. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. 

Joseph M. Pierce es profesor asociado en el Departamento de lenguas y literatura hispánicas en Stony Brook University. Sus intereses se centran en las intersecciones de los estudios de género, sexualidad, parentesco y raza en América Latina, la literatura y cultura decimonónicas, los estudios queer y cuir, los estudios indígenas y el acercamiento hemisférico a la ciudadanía y la pertenencia colectiva. Es autor de Argentine Intimacies: Queer Kinship in an Age of Splendor, 1890-1910 (SUNY Press, 2019) y co-editor de Políticas del amor: Derechos sexuales y escrituras disidentes en el Cono Sur (Cuarto Propio, 2018) además del número especial de GLQ, “Queer/Cuir Américas: Translation, Decoloniality, and the Incommensurable” (2021). Su trabajo ha sido publicado en Revista Hispánica Moderna, Latin American Research Review, Critical Ethnic Studies, además de Indian Country Today. Junto con SJ Norman (Koori de ascendencia Wiradjuri) es co-curador de la serie de performance Knowledge of Wounds. Es ciudadano de la nación cheroqui. 

Details

Date:
September 8, 2022
Time:
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Event Category:
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