Conversations on Racism and the politics of culture
In the Fall Semester of 2020, Charles Briggs redesigned his graduate seminar at the University of California, Berkeley (entitled “Theories of Traditionality and Modernity”) in such a way as to augment its engagement with decolonial approaches by including a series of five Conversations on Racism and the Politics of Culture. The goal was to record discussions that form both an asynchronous component of the course but also—available on a YouTube channel—will be of lasting value for other instructors, students at all levels, and anyone interested in these issues. Each is associated with a unit of the course, and readings were selected in collaboration with the guest. The course syllabus is available here. Visitors were compensated for the generous gift of their time at a historical juncture when they faced so many additional obligations. The interlocutors range from well-established scholars to junior faculty members to graduate students. In addition to illuminating particular bodies of content, each visitor comments on dimensions of their own experience in facing issues of Eurocentrism, white supremacy, and racism in academic and other contexts. The participants are:
Sadhana Naithani, Professor and Chairperson, Centre of German Studies and Coordinator of the Folklore Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her books include In Quest of Indian Folktales: Pandit Ram Gharib Chaube and William Crooke, The Story Time of the British Empire, Folklore Theory in Postwar Germany, Folklore in Baltic History, and a novella Elephantine, as well as films in collaboration with Sudheer Gupta.
Alex Chávez is the Nancy O’Neill Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, a faculty fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies, and author of Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño. Trained in anthropology, folkloristics, ethnomusicology, and Latinx Studies at the University of Texas-Austin, he is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist musician, performing huapango arribeño and other genres.
Lee D. Baker is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and African and African American Studies at Duke University, where he served as Dean of Academic Affairs. A Ford Foundation Fellow and Fellow of the American Philosophical Society and the National Humanities Center, his books include two monographs, From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 (1998) and Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture (2010).
Lashon A. Daley is a PhD Candidate in Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College (2008) and an MA in Folklore (2015) from UC Berkeley. A scholar, dancer, storyteller, and choreographer, she bridges communities through movement and storytelling. She published a children’s book, Mr. Okra Sells Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (2016) and created Stories&Slams, a podcast focusing on everyday stories.
Christopher B. Teuton, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is a Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, where he served as Chair of American Indian Studies. His books include Deep Waters: The Textual Continuum in American Indian Literature (2010) and Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club (2012), the latter in collaboration with elders and traditionalists Hastings Shade, Sammy Still, Sequoyah Guess, and Woody Hansen.
Conversation with Sadhana Naithani
Sadhana Naithani is a Professor at the Centre of German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She is the Coordinator of the Folklore Unit at JNU, an Honorary Fellow of the American Folklore Society, and the current President of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research.
Conversation with Alex Chávez
Alex E. Chávez is the Nancy O'Neill Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His research explores articulations of Latinx sounds and aurality in relation to race, place-making, expressive culture, and the intimacies that bind lives across physical and cultural borders.
Conversation with Lee Baker
Lee D. Baker is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African & African American Studies at Duke University. Although he focuses on the history of anthropology, he has published numerous articles on a wide range of subjects from socio-linguistics to race and democracy.
Conversation with Lashon Daley
Lashon Daley is the director of the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature with a specialization in children’s literature, and an affiliate faculty of the Digital Humanities Initiative at San Diego State University.
Conversation with Chris Teuton
Chris Teuton is a professor and Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington-Seattle, as well as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and member of Echota-Tanasi Ceremonial Grounds in Park Hill, Oklahoma. He teaches courses on Indigenous literature and storytelling, Indigenous Studies, and Indigenous research methods.