Colloq with Heather Miyano Kopelson
February 20, 2024, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm EST
Join us on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at 5:00 pm ET in the Cox classroom of the Reeder Media Center, lower level of Swem Library, as we welcome Heather Miyano Kopelson.
Professor Kopelson will discuss “Seashell,” a chapter comes from her book manuscript, Speaking Objects: Indigenous Women and the Materials of Dance in the Americas, 1500-1700), which is aimed especially at undergraduates in introductory history surveys. It examines the centrality of Indigenous women’s cultural, spiritual, and political actions in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Americas through the cultural history of seashell (both freshwater and marine) as it was used to add sound to dancing.
Heather Miyano Kopelson is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Alabama and is a co-advisor to the recently founded Indigenous students’ group Bama Indigenous Student Organization and Network (BISON). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa (2008) and is the author of Faithful Bodies: Performing Religion and Race in the Puritan Atlantic (New York University Press, 2014). She has held fellowships at Houghton, Folger, and Newberry Libraries related to her current book manuscript, Speaking Objects: Indigenous Women and the Materials of Dance in the Americas, 1500-1700. This research has allowed her to combine her passion for the creation of textiles (spinning, knitting, weaving) with her historical interests.
The OI holds between three and six colloquia per semester to discuss projects (usually a postdoctoral book chapter or article) in progress. The paper is pre-circulated and available by request. Although only postdoctoral work is presented, graduate students at all levels are warmly encouraged to attend the sessions and participate in the discussions.
To receive a copy of the pre-circulated paper you must register in advance. All colloq participants are expected to have read the paper before the discussion and are asked to refrain from sharing the papers with others. We thank you for your observance of this request.