On Wednesday November 20, 2024, and Tuesday, November 26, 2024, Dr. Brian Burkhart will hold a workshop and lecture at Utrecht University. This event is organized by the Conceptualizing Ecocide project of the Pathways to Sustainability and supported by the NOG and Network for Environmental Humanities and the Law School at Utrecht University. Prof. Dr. Brian Burkhart is visiting Utrecht University on a Critical Pathways Fellowship.
Workshop:
Decolonizing and Indigenizing Sustainability through the Land
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
15:00h-17:00h @ Bovenzaal, Oude Hortus, Utrecht University
This workshop will discuss how colonial power dynamics obscure Indigenous theories and practices of sustainability. It will explore how two different Indigenous decolonial frameworks of practice—an Indigenous trickster method of hermeneutic justice and a resurgence method of
Indigenous land-based practices—serve to reveal these ways of being in relation to the land as the relational ground of being and kinship, from which human and more-than-human relatives emerge and thrive. Particular emphasis will be placed on plant relatives and how to understand and relate to them within the context of Indigenous land-based theories and practices.
Brian Burkhart Biography
Dr. Brian Burkhart is an Associate Professor of Philosophy, affiliate faculty in Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and director of the Native Nations Center. His research specializes in Native American and Indigenous philosophy, specifically Indigenous land-based conceptions of well-being and environmental ethics. His 2019 book, Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: A Trickster Methodology for Decolonizing Environmental Ethics and Indigenous Futures, argues that land is key to both the operations of coloniality as well as the anti-colonial power that grounds Indigenous liberation. Land, as a material, conceptual, and ontological foundation for Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and valuing, provides a framework for Indigenous environmental ethics that can also function as an anti-colonial force for sovereign Indigenous futures. His current book project, As Strong as the Land that Made You: Native American and Indigenous Philosophies of Well-Being through the Land, extends these land-based methodologies into reflections on both environmental and individual health for Native people and Native Nations. Burkhart is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma with roots in the Jaybird Creek community of Northeastern Oklahoma as well as the Indian Wells community of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Indiana University.
NOG CREDITS
The workshop on 20 November and lecture on 26 November are organized in collaboration with the Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG), working together to bring Indigenous philosophies and questions of justice to the forefront of our interdisciplinary engagement with law and the humanities.
(R)MA and PhD students are eligible to receive 1ECTS for active participation in both the workshop on 20 November and the lecture on 26 November, and should register through the channels of the NOG.
(R)MA and PhD students are eligible to receive 2 ECTS for active participation in both the workshop and the lecture, and for writing a short reflection on the events of ca. 1,000 words. Participants should register through the channels of the NOG. More details about this assignment will be made available to registered students at a later date.
Date & Time: November 20, 2024, 15:00h-17:00h, followed by a reception at 17:00h
Location: Bovenzaal, Oude Hortus, Utrecht. Reception will be held at the Cafe.
Registration: there is a limited amount of spots available. Please register by sending an email to NOG@uu.nl with ‘Registration Workshop/Lecture Burkhart’ as a subject line.
Contact Person: Dr. Carolina Sánchez de Jaegher (p.c.sanchez-jaegher@uu.nl)
LECTURE:
INDIGENOUS VISIONS OF LAW AND ECOCIDE
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
15:00h-18:00h @ Johanna Hudiggebouw, Room 1.27, Utrecht University.
Keynote: Prof. Dr. Brian Burkhart, member of Cherokee nation, author of the book Indigenizing Philosophy, director of the Indigenous Knowledge Center at the University of Oklahoma and Indigenous Studies.
Description
This seminar will center on Indigenous legal orders, justice, and ecocide from Indigenous perspectives. By providing detailed insights into the Navajo peacemaking courts, the keynote aims to contrast Indigenous legal orders and ethical principles, such as kinship relationality, with Western legal concepts. In doing this, it aims to highlight how the notion of law as ‘international’ often overlooks the colonial difference while reinforcing colonial structures within justice systems. These colonial frameworks are said to be pervasive worldwide today, extending the experiences of land dispossession and ecocide that Indigenous communities have endured for centuries to the broader global population.
The concept of ecocide will be examined through Indigenous land-based philosophies and practices, which view land as the relational foundation of existence and kinship. This approach will offer a contrast to Western interpretations of ecocide, shifting the focus to the binary between anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives on the issue.
Additionally, this seminar will explore how to address ecological harms legally without perpetuating coloniality and Eurocentrism as delocalized blanket for justice interpretation, advocating for clear distinctions between eurocentrism and European thinking within the pluriverse. These distinctions need to be made as they are deeply interconnected across all dimensions of justice concerning ecocide. Addressing them in the discussion will help illuminate pathways for healing and reparations.
This event is organized by the Conceptualizing Ecocide project of the Pathways to Sustainability and supported by the Network for Environmental Humanities and the Law School at Utrecht University
Given the high level of interest, particularly in relation to Indigenous perspectives on this topic, the venue is expected to fill quickly. We recommend reserving your spot as soon as possible to ensure participation.
Date & Time: November 26, 2024, 15:00h-18:00h
Location: Johanna Hudiggebouw, Room 1.27, Utrecht University
Registration: there is a limited amount of spots available. Please register by sending an email to NOG@uu.nl with ‘Registration Workshop/Lecture Burkhart’ as a subject line.
Contact Person: Dr. Carolina Sánchez de Jaegher (p.c.sanchez-jaegher@uu.nl)
