Serializing Decoloniality: Indigenous Activist Practices in Oklahoma Post McGirt (dissertation project)

Dissertation in Cultural Studies

Mentoring team:
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Frank Kelleter
Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Martin Lüthe
Third supervisor: N/A

How is decolonization practiced in North America? I am writing an interdisciplinary dissertation on activist serialization and the serial media-politics of indigenous communities in Oklahoma after the US Supreme Court's milestone decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020). My thesis is that indigenous, decolonizing activism can be understood as serial.

In cultural studies, the concept of seriality is used to describe a practice/process of narrative production. By analyzing activism as such, we can learn about the media-political processes of activistic narrative production changing and challenging settler-colonial narratological dominance. Analyzing indigenous activism as a serialized performance will offer more accurate insights into political action, potentially even decolonial action. It allows to account for the heterogeneity and incoherence of communities and can better show the constant negotiating processes of meaning-making and world-building, as they unfold.

I am going to observe and describe contemporary indigenous activism in Oklahoma in terms of its narrative productions in the realms of politics (marches, occupations, court cases), visuality (movies, series, commercial products), and food preparation (restaurants for indigenous cuisine, tribally-affiliated markets, and nutritional programs).