Critical Indigenous Studies


Book Description

Aileen Moreton-Robinson and the contributors to this important volume deploy incisive critique and analytical acumen to propose new directions for critical Indigenous studies in the First World. Leading scholars offer thought-provoking essays on the central epistemological, theoretical, political, and pedagogical questions and debates that constitute the discipline of Indigenous studies, including a brief history of the discipline.




Reshaping the University


Book Description

In the past few decades, the narrow intellectual foundations of the university have come under serious scrutiny. Previously marginalized groups have called for improved access to the institution and full inclusion in the curriculum. Reshaping the University is a timely, thorough, and original interrogation of academic practices. It moves beyond current analyses of cultural conflicts and discrimination in academic institutions to provide an indigenous postcolonial critique of the modern university. Rauna Kuokkanen argues that attempts by universities to be inclusive are unsuccessful because they do not embrace indigenous worldviews. Programs established to act as bridges between mainstream and indigenous cultures ignore their ontological and epistemic differences and, while offering support and assistance, place the responsibility of adapting wholly on the student. Indigenous students and staff are expected to leave behind their cultural perspectives and epistemes in order to adopt Western values. Reshaping the University advocates a radical shift in the approach to cultural conflicts within the academy and proposes a new logic, grounded in principles central to indigenous philosophies.




Cosmological Readings of Contemporary Australian Literature


Book Description

This book presents an innovative and imaginative reading of contemporary Australian literature in the context of unprecedented ecological crisis. The Australian continent has seen significant, rapid changes to its cultures and land-use from the impact of British colonial rule, yet there is a rich history of Indigenous land-ethics and cosmological thought. By using the age-old idea of ‘cosmos’—the order of the world—to foreground ideas of a good order and chaos, reciprocity and more-than-human agency, this book interrogates the Anthropocene in Australia, focusing on notions of colonisation, farming, mining, bioethics, technology, environmental justice and sovereignty. It offers ‘cosmological readings’ of a diverse range of authors—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—as a challenge to the Anthropocene’s decline-narrative. As a result, it reactivates ‘cosmos’ as an ethical vision and a transculturally important counter-concept to the Anthropocene. Kathrin Bartha-Mitchell argues that the arts can help us envision radical cosmologies of being in and with the planet, and to address the very real social and environmental problems of our era. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Ecocriticism, Environmental Humanities, and postcolonial, transcultural and Indigenous studies, with a primary focus on Australian, New Zealand, Oceanic and Pacific area studies.




Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts


Book Description

Indigenous knowledges are the commonsense ideas and cultural knowledges of local peoples concerning the everyday realities of living. This collection of essays discusses indigenous knowledges and their implication for academic decolonization.




Intimate Violence


Book Description

Take an updated approach to treating partner violence! Intimate Violence: Contemporary Treatment Innovations examines new and innovative approaches to treating domestic violence, de-emphasizing the unilateral, psychoeducational approach in favor of treatment modalities that focus on the offenders' individual characteristics. The book presents up-to-date information on techniques for working with men and women who commit intimate partner violence, moving past a “one size fits all” mentality to develop treatment that affects long-term changes in beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. It also includes a brief history of perpetrator treatment, feminist perspectives on treatment, and recent research findings that suggest domestic violence offenders need more than education and attitude adjustment. Intimate Violence explores key treatment issues not usually found in more traditional approaches, particularly shame and attachment. The book focuses on alternate methods based on assessment and tailored to meet the treatment needs of specific populations, including women, lesbian batterers, men with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and Aboriginal men living in Canada. It also examines the Beit Noam, an Israeli live-in intervention program for abusive men, and addresses the legal and ethical issues surrounding the court-mandated treatment of offenders. An international, interdisciplinary panel of practitioners, researchers, and academics also discuss: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Physical Aggression Couples Treatment (PACT) attachment theory therapeutically based interventions feminist/social learning treatment individual, group, and integrative therapies transpersonal psychology systems thinking field theory and much more! Intimate Violence: Contemporary Treatment Innovations is an essential resource for clinicians, researchers, educators, and advocates working in psychology, social work, counseling, law, health care, and related disciplines.




Reading Down Under


Book Description

The Englishness of English literature had been expressed in Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott, those writers whose works seemed best to embody the spirit of the place or the spirit of its folk. In what writers or works would the Australianness of Australian literature be discovered? (David Carter 1997)--------This first literary Reader on Australian studies from India not only investigates this central question but explores many other facets of Australian literature and especially Australian cross-cultural relationships with India and Asia. Taking a broad view of what Australian literature is, this Reader explores the dimensions of Australian literature (national, Aboriginal, multicultural, ecocritical, postcolonial, modernist, comparative, feminist, and popular) in its varied genres of drama, poetry, autobiography, explorers' journals, short stories, literature of war, travel writing, Anglo-Indian fiction, diasporic writing, mainstream novel, nature writing, children's literature, romance, science fiction, gothic literature, horror, crime fiction, queer writing, and humour. Each paper in this Reader presents different ways of "reading down under" and "performing Australianness." Juxtaposing the varied critical perspectives of nearly 60 critics this Reader hopes to create a constructive dialogue in the fight against the dominance of an Anglo-American academic approach.




Anthropologists, Indigenous Scholars and the Research Endeavour


Book Description

This collection offers the fruits of a stimulating workshop that sought to bridge the fraught relationship which sometimes continues between anthropologists and indigenous/native/aboriginal scholars, despite areas of overlapping interest. Participants from around the world share their views and opinions on subjects ranging from ideas for reconciliation, the question of what might constitute a universal "science," indigenous heritage, postcolonial museology, the boundaries of the term "indigeneity," different senses as ways of knowing, and the very issue of writing as a method of dissemination that divides and excludes readers from different backgrounds. This book represents a landmark step in the process of replacing bridges with more equal patterns of intercultural cooperation and communication.




From Primitive to Indigenous


Book Description

The academic study of Indigenous Religions developed historically from missiological and anthropological sources, but little analysis has been devoted to this classification within departments of religious studies. Evaluating this assumption in the light of case studies drawn from Zimbabwe, Alaska and shamanic traditions, and in view of current debates over 'primitivism', James Cox mounts a defence for the scholarly use of the category 'Indigenous Religions'.




The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research


Book Description

Action research is a term used to describe a family of related approaches that integrate theory and action with a goal of addressing important organizational, community, and social issues together with those who experience them. It focuses on the creation of areas for collaborative learning and the design, enactment and evaluation of liberating actions through combining action and research, reflection and action in an ongoing cycle of cogenerative knowledge. While the roots of these methodologies go back to the 1940s, there has been a dramatic increase in research output and adoption in university curricula over the past decade. This is now an area of high popularity among academics and researchers from various fields—especially business and organization studies, education, health care, nursing, development studies, and social and community work. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research brings together the many strands of action research and addresses the interplay between these disciplines by presenting a state-of-the-art overview and comprehensive breakdown of the key tenets and methods of action research as well as detailing the work of key theorists and contributors to action research.




St. James Guide to Native North American Artists


Book Description

Profiling 400 prominent artists of the 20th century, each entry in this reference includes a biographical profile; lists of exhibitions, public galleries and museums; a bibliography of books and articles by and about the entrant; and presents a critical perspective on the artist's work.