Dr. Mallory Whiteduck: “Rez Theory: Revealing the Critical Significance of Everyday Native Life”

Mallory Whiteduck is Algonquin from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and an assistant professor of Indigenous Political Thought in the Department of Political Science at Vassar College. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Department of American Culture. Her research developing the concept of rez theory won the 2022 American Studies Association’s Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Prize. Her current research makes the relatively radical claim that ordinary rez life is critical, tactical, and theoretically significant. This talk introduces the thematics that form rez theory and explores the rez aesthetics of Louise Erdrich’s first novel, Love Medicine. Sponsored by American Studies, History, English, Special Collections, and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.