March 25, 2020 Reception/food at 6:15 p.m. Lecture and Q&A from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. RSVP to Donna.Malone@carleton.ca by March 15, 2020 FREE ADMISSION
Gerald Vizenor, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, and a citizen of the White Earth (Anishinaabe) Nation of Minnesota, is “one of the most celebrated Indigenous writers of the modern era,” and “arguably the most accomplished and prolific intellectual in the field of Native American Studies.” Over the past five decades he has authored more than 30 books — from novels, short stories, essays, and poetry to screenplays, radio scripts, and cultural criticism “ranging widely across terrains of the artistic, literary, philosophical, linguistic, historical, ethnographic and sociological aspects of interpreting native stories.” He is also the principal writer for the White Earth Nation Constitution.
Named to Utne Reader’s list of one hundred “people who could change your life,” Vizenor’s crucial and liberating theories on Survivance, natural reason and the Postindian are highly influential in the field. His concept of ‘Survivance’, in particular, is widely cited for “revolutionizing our understanding of the lives, creative impulses, literary practices and histories of the Native Peoples of North America.” Hailed as a brilliant ironist, his surreal and satirical trickster novels have been likened to the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood. “Vizenor’s brilliance is ‘always tricky, but never tragic.’... a necessary healing disturbance.” As frequently noted, “Vizenor is unique in that he does not remind you of anyone else”, no more so than in his evocative poetry which joins the traditions of Japanese haiku and Chippewa dream songs.
His works have been translated into several languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, and have earned him two prestigious American Book Awards. Vizenor is also the recipient of the Distinguished Minnesotan Award, an honorary doctorate from Macalester College, and Yale University has archived his collected manuscripts. He is currently Distinguished Visitor at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.
In 2010 Gerald Vizenor was a featured speaker at Carleton’s New Sun Conference on Aboriginal Arts. “He was erudite, ironic, droll, cerebral, charming, amusing and thoroughly engaging.” On that occasion Carleton’s student Word Warrior Society honoured him for his unparalleled contributions to the field of Indigenous Studies.
On Wednesday, March 25, 2020, Carleton University welcomes back Professor Vizenor to deliver a keynote lecture in the Fenn Lounge, Residence Commons:
Provenance of Native Survivance
A presentation of the New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture, the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, and the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences.