CANCELLED: EIHS-Women's Studies Lecture: Ukuphazama iNatali: Bringing Queer and Indigenous Studies Approaches to South African History and Beyond

How can critical indigenous and queer theoretical approaches transform the way we think about colonial history in South Africa (and beyond)? If settler colonialism itself is presented as a form of orientation, of making a recognizable and inhabitable home space for European arrivals on indigenous land, then native peoples and their continued resistance can serve to ‘queer’ these attempted forms of order. In such circumstances, the customs, practices, and potentially the very bodies of indigenous peoples can become queer despite remaining ostensibly heterosexual in orientation and practice, as their existence constantly undermines the desired order of an emergent settler state.

T.J. Tallie is an assistant professor of African history at the University of San Diego. He specializes in the comparative settler colonial and imperial history, with a focus on South Africa. His interests include colonialism, gender and racial identity, indigeneity, sexuality, and religious expression. He is the recent author of Queering Colonial Natal: Indigeneity and the Violence of Belonging in Southern Africa.

Free and open to the public.

This event presented by the Department of Women's Studies and the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.