CS 400X

Indigenous Futurisms

First coined by Anishinaabe scholar Grace Dillon, Indigenous futurism riffs on the tradition of Afrofuturism to describe cultural production that imagines and represents Indigenous futures against and beyond settler colonialism. Settler colonialism’s aim, of course, is to foreclose such Indigenous futures, and Indigenous futurisms disrupt this foreclosure in myriad ways. This Senior Seminar will explore these myriad ways, studying media of Indigenous futurism in two ways. First, we will critically survey Indigenous cultural production ranging from visual art to video games that express elements of Indigenous futurisms. And, second, we will explore how Indigenous de- and anti-colonial movements enact principles of Indigenous futurisms in the present. We will develop frameworks of analysis through weekly theoretical readings and apply these frameworks throughout the course. Students will gain a deeper understanding of Indigenous worldviews and lifeways, historical and ongoing expressions of settler colonialism in what is now called Canada, and, more broadly, how media shape futures. Assignments will be both creative and critical in nature.