Queer Indigenous Performances in the Americas

Catalog description

This course introduces you to critical themes on queer Indigenous danzas and performances in the Americas continent. Students will engage with queer theory, Critical Indigenous Studies, and Performance Studies to analyze how queer Indigenous people, through public and intimate performances, reclaim their bodies and seek dignified recognition in their Indigenous communities in the contemporary era. Students will analyze the cultural role that the queer Indigenous body in movement and improvisation plays in redefining gender and sexual roles in Indigenous communities in Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, the United States and other regions. We will also study what role queer Indigenous people occupy in their communities beyond the performance space and the violence many of them experience outside the fiestas and ceremonies. We will host some guest lecturers (including queer Indigenous performers), who will share their direct experience dancing in the public space in their communities. Some options for the final project include a Queer Indigenous Performance Symposium, an Art Gallery, and a critical essay (we will determine what will be the final project with the students in the first week of class).