International Conference, June 20-23, 2014

According to Osage scholar Robert Warrior, Gerald Vizenor is "the most innovative and theoretically sophisticated contemporary Native author," and Kimberly Blaeser (Anishinaabe) rightfully calls him "the most prolific Native American writer of the twentieth century." Born of Anishinaabe descent in Minneapolis in 1934, Vizenor is the author and editor of more than 40 books, including award-winning novels, plays, poems, autobiographical texts and essays, as well as seminal contributions to literary and cultural theory, politics, and Indigenous Studies.
This international conference brings together some of the most distinguished experts on Gerald Vizenor's work and the author himself in order to discuss his writings from different interdisciplinary angles, to revisit his most famous theoretical concepts (such as trickster discourse, postindian survivance, totemic associations, native presence, artistic irony, and transmotion), and to provide fresh perspectives on the lifetime achievement of one of the most influential Native North American writers today. On the occasion of the publication of Blue Ravens, Gerald Vizenor’s brand new historical novel on the role of Native soldiers in World War I, this gathering in Vienna is the first of its kind in offering a systematic look at Gerald Vizenor’s poetic, fictional, theoretical, and juridical writing, and in serving as a larger platform of exchange on the latest research in Native North American Studies.

Confirmed speakers:

• Gerald Vizenor (UC Berkeley/University of New Mexico, USA)
• A. Robert Lee (Nihon University, Japan)
• Allan J. Ryan (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada)
• Kimberly Blaeser (University of Wisconsin, USA)
• Wanda Nanibush (film maker, curator, visual artist; Toronto, Canada)
• Kathryn Shanley (University of Montana, USA)
• David L. Moore (University of Montana, USA)
• Billy J. Stratton (University of Denver, USA)
• Christopher Lalonde (SUNY Oswego, USA)
• Karsten Fitz (University of Passau, Germany)
• Sabine N. Meyer (University of Osnabrück, Germany)
• Klaus Lösch (University of Erlangen, Germany)
• Cathy Waegner (University of Siegen, Germany)
• Kristina Baudemann (University of Würzburg, Germany)
• Alexandra Ganser (University of Vienna)

Concluding Event:
A Reading with Gerald Vizenor from his new novel Blue Ravens
Monday, June 23, 2014, 6:00 pm
Amerika Haus
Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 2 (U2 Rathaus)
Please register by e-mail: programs@usembassy.at

For more information on the conference, please contact: nativestudies@univie.ac.at

Organizers:
Birgit Däwes, Michael Draxlbauer, Alexandra Ganser, Alexandra Hauke & Nicole Poppenhagen