Good news! Recently, I submitted a proposal to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association council to present a panel on Native Blogging for their annual conference, and our proposal was accepted.
I will be presenting on my blog, Beyond Buckskin, along with Adrienne Keene from Native Appropriations, Gyasi Ross from The Thing About Skins, and Lara Evans from Not Artomatic. We will be discussing the importance of this new mode of writing and publishing.
Native writers, scholars, artists and activists are using a new venue to confront issues affecting our daily lives. Through blogs on appropriation, art, fashion, and education, these critics use their blogs to push the Native voice to the forefront and take institutions to task. By investigating the interstices between Native cultures, stereotypes, mass media, and academia, these authors make their research and observations accessible to a broader audience. They also cover holes in commercial/academic publishing and deal with issues at a faster pace than the timeline that it takes to publish a book, or even an academic article. Both Native and non-Native readers subscribe to these blogs and participate in a discussion that involves thinking critically about various topics that affect our daily lives, yet also have larger repercussions.
The annual meeting will be held in Sacramento, May 19-21, 2011.