Deadline for submissions: January 1, 2017

Contact email: mmslocum@asu.edu
CFP: Indigenous Genocide in America

Special Issue to Appear in Transmotion: An Online Journal of Postmodern Indigenous Studies

http://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion

Transmotion is currently seeking submissions for a special issue on the topic of “Indigenous Genocides in America: Erasure and Survivance.” This issue aims to engage with the latest scholarship related to genocide (which deploys the concepts of social death, historical trauma, and erasure) and to further highlight the applicability of that scholarship in an Indigenous Studies context.

In a 2006 speech, Gerald Vizenor argues that indigenous experiences of genocide should be addressed in university settings (particularly in law schools) through what he calls “Genocide Tribunals.” While he concedes that these academic tribunals would not necessarily lead to actual prosecutions, Vizenor argues that they would yield new and better understandings of sovereignty issues and highlight the history of forced absences of American Indians from legal processes and the master narratives of U.S. settler colonialism. Vizenor further suggests that stories, particularly those passed down orally through Indigenous communities and families, should stand as important, accepted evidence of genocide. Genocidal structures remain in place, Vizenor contends, because the Unites States has been allowed to ignore and obscure its own actions, both past and present. Indigenous peoples have survived and continue to enact their own resilience, however, with their stories constantly working to contest literary and political erasure. Highlighting such acts of resistance in their varied forms is an important part of the critical discourse of survivance.

For this special issue on Indigenous Genocides in America, the editors of Transmotion will look for submissions that do any of the following:

–Interrogate and extend legal and theoretical models of genocide and social death within a U.S. context.

–Employ interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches to consider the historical impacts of genocide and strategies of survivance/continuance.

–Explore concepts of erasure/absence and survivance in and through a range of expressive forms and communal contexts (particularly those not typically examined in writing on genocide).

–Use indigenous theoretical texts/models/paradigms of genocide to read and/or interrogate Euroamerican texts/ideas/philosophies.

The journal will accept creative or hybrid work for this special issue, provided that such work aligns aesthetically with the aforementioned editorial emphasis.

Those interested in submitting essays and/or creative work for this special issue should contact Melissa Michal Slocum at mmslocum@asu.edu. Abstracts will be due by Jan 1, 2017 and full essays/creative pieces will be due by June 30, 2017.