Keynote: Indigenous Media, Visual Anthropology, and the Archival Imaginary
28 September, 10-11 am, UniS, Room S 003
Faye Ginsburg, Center for Media, Culture, and History (NYU)
This talk considers the intersections between visual anthropology Indigenous media, and what I am calling the archival imaginary, that have played important roles in shaping the rapidly transforming field of visual anthropology at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. I place these in conversation with efforts to “decolonize media anthropology” through the “aesthetics of accountability”, a particular approach that holds those who make media accountable to the concerns of subjects. Indigenous archives, in particular, are good to think with, provoking us to recognize alternative protocols, resignify settler colonial archives, restore fragile legacies and consider how we might help sustain Indigenous media collections. I will use exemplars that demonstrate these efforts, drawing in particular on my longstanding work with First Nations media makers.
Faye Ginsburg is the David Kriser Professor of Anthropology at New York University, where she founded and directs the Graduate Certificate Program in Culture & Media, the Center for Media, Culture & History, and the Center for Disability Studies. She has written/ edited six award-winning books based on her research on the politics of reproduction, Indigenous media, and disability activism. These include Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community, Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain, and in 2024, Disability Worlds (with Rayna Rapp); she is currently working on a book entitled Indigenous Media in a Digital Age.