Property, Territory, and Sovereignty on Indigenous Land

Sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center and made possible by support from Marta Sutton Weeks, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities

How does the brute fact of settler colonialism on Indigenous Land compel us to reexamine and explore often taken for granted concepts of property, territory, and sovereignty? Prioritizing a historical and global scope, this workshop invites a critical examination of these concepts. We will explore how Indigenous resistance and engagement have shaped—and continue to shift—these concepts against the backdrop of occupation of Indigenous land. Participants will engage with these concepts’ historical entanglements, legal foundations, and political realities across the globe. Drawing upon the intellectual scholarship of Indigenous Peoples and other scholars this workshop examines the intellectual and social possibilities opened by centuries Indigenous resistance and contestation of reductive western notions of these categories by placing them in historical and geographical comparison. This workshop will also create a needed space on campus where graduate and faculty level engagement with Indigenous Studies can take place.