Dr. Nancy Love: “Land and Song: Indigenous Reflections on Sovereign Community”
Thursday, February 1st @ 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Talk Location: Schaffel Recital Hall, Broyhill Music Center (BMC 129)
Reception Location: Broyhill Music Center 209
About the Series: This event is part of the Music Humanities Community Conversation Series, which provides a forum for students, faculty, and staff at Appalachian State University and community members to engage current topics in music humanities through invited talks and workshops given by scholars, artists, and cultural leaders from Appalachian State and the surrounding region.
- The events are free and open to the public.
- Attendees may park in the Schaefer Lot, Broyhill Lot, or Peacock Lot for free from 7:00pm to the end of the event. The Broyhill Music Center is at 813 Rivers St, Boone, NC, 28608.
- For more information, contact Dr. Jacob Kopcienski, via email at kopcienskija@appstate.edu or by phone at 828-262-7385.
- This event is sponsored by the Hayes School of Music with generous co-sponsorship from the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University.
Lecture Topic
“Land and Song: Indigenous Reflections on Sovereign Community”
This lecture compares western with Indigenous reflections on the connections between the land and song. I focus on two themes: how the settler colonial categories of western legal systems fracture land relations; and how indigenous peoples continue to sustain them through ceremony.
My primary example is the uses of song – in sacred ceremony, unity concerts, and pop music fundraisers -- by the Standing Rock Sioux in their struggle to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect water as life itself. I argue that U.S. legal decisions have repeatedly failed to understand the sovereign community invoked by the tribes.
I conclude that the West can learn much from Indigenous peoples about how to regain “resonance” (Rosa 2016), that is, how to live in “right relation” to the land and all beings.
Speaker Biography
Nancy Love joined the Department of Government & Justice Studies at Appalachian State in 2009. She received a Ph.D. in 1984 and M.A. in 1981 from Cornell University and an A.B. degree in 1977 from Kenyon College.
Her teaching and research emphasize political theory, especially critical theory, democratic theory, and feminist theory. She is the author of numerous books including Trendy Fascism: White Power Music and the Future of Democracy (2016), Musical Democracy (2006), and the co-editor of volumes including Doing Democracy: Activist Art and Cultural Politics (2013).
Her current project is a book entitled, Anthems: Community, Land, and Song. A chapter from it provides the basis for this talk.