As of July 19, 2021, reading room appointments are available. COVID-19 Update Website (active tab) Catalog NAVIGATION The Virtual Book Talk showcases authors of recently published scholarly monographs, digital-equivalents, and creative works broadly related to book history and print culture. Each installment includes an informal presentation from the author and a Q&A with the audience. These talks are streamed live for registered participants and are recorded for posterity. All previous virtual book talks are available to view on the AAS YouTube channel. Talks typically last 45 minutes to one hour. For more information, contact Kevin Wisniewski, Director of Book History and Digital Initiatives at kwisniewski@mwa.org. To receive notifications about upcoming PHBAC programs, join the PHBAC mailing list. Speaking for the People: Native Writing and the Question of Political Form with Mark Rifkin Thursday, December 2, 2021, 2 pm EDT Approx. 1 hour Register This program is free but requires advanced registration. In Speaking for the People Mark Rifkin examines nineteenth-century Native writings to reframe contemporary debates around Indigenous recognition, refusal, and resurgence. Rifkin shows how works by Native authors (William Apess, Elias Boudinot, Sarah Winnemucca, and Zitkala-Ša) illustrate the intellectual labor involved in representing modes of Indigenous political identity and placemaking. These writers highlight the complex processes involved in negotiating the character, contours, and scope of Indigenous sovereignties under ongoing colonial occupation. Rifkin argues that attending to these writers' engagements with non-native publics helps provide further analytical tools for addressing the complexities of Indigenous governance on the ground—both then and now. Thinking about Native peoplehood and politics as a matter of form opens possibilities for addressing the difficult work involved in navigating among varied possibilities for conceptualizing and enacting peoplehood in the context of continuing settler intervention. As Rifkin demonstrates, attending to writings by these Indigenous intellectuals provides ways of understanding Native governance as a matter of deliberation, discussion, and debate, emphasizing the open-ended unfinishedness of self-determination. Mark Rifkin is Linda Arnold Carlisle Distinguished Excellence Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Professor of English at UNC Greensboro. In addition to Speaking for the People, he is the author of six books, including Fictions of Land and Flesh: Blackness, Indigeneity, Speculation (Duke UP, 2019); Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination (Duke UP, 2017); and When Did Indians Become Straight?: Kinship, the History of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty (Oxford UP, 2011), winner of the John Hope Franklin Prize for Best Book in American Studies. He also co-edited the award-winning "Sexuality, Nationality, Indigeneity," a special double-issue of the journal GLQ, and he has served as president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Order this book directly from the publisher at https://www.dukeupress.edu/ UPCOMING TALKS Date Speaker Image Bookcover Program Title and Link Video 12/02/2021 Mark Rifkin Speaking for the People: Native Writing and the Question of Political Form Register 01/27/2022 Matthew G. Kirschenbaum Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage Register 02/24/2022 Reed Gochberg Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America Register 03/31/2022 Hannah Farber Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding Register View all virtual book talks 2020 - present These virtual book talks have been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Quick Links Catalog | Login | Digital A-Z Hours By appointment: Monday: 9-5 Tuesday: 10-5 Wednesday: 9-5 Thursday: 9-5 Friday: 9-5 © 2021 American Antiquarian Society | 185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609-1634 | Tel: 508-755-5221 | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Staff Directory