Unlearning in Order to Learn: A Conversation about Indigenous Histories

Most of us have information in our heads about Indigenous peoples, learned in school or from popular culture. Much of this information is wrong or based on biased assumptions. This lecture with discussion will present the concept of unlearning what we already “know” as the starting point for learning about Indigenous peoples.

Alice Nash is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a PhD in iHstory from Columbia University (1997) and an MA in American and New England Studies from Boston University (1989). Her research interests range from the impact of colonization on family and gender relations in Wabanaki history before 1800 to current topics such as the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She has published numerous articles on northeastern Native American history including three in French translation in the Quebec journal Recherches amérindiennes au Québec (RAQ). In 2003–2004, she was awarded the first Fulbright-Université de Montréal Distinguished Chair. During this year, she served on the RAQ editorial board and taught a course on the Deerfield Raid of 1704, connecting New England and New France. Her most recent publication is “Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to 1900,” published in The Routledge Handbook to the History and Society of the Americas (2019), which she co-edited with Olaf Kaltmeier, Josef Raab, Michael Stewart Foley, Stefan Rinke, and Mario Rufer. She is the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019) to serve as director or co-director of Teaching Native American Histories, a Summer Institute for K–12 teachers drawn from a national pool of applicants.

This lecture will be in-person at the Tyringham Union Church and also viewable via Zoom. In-person tickets can be purchased at the door, but Zoom attendees must register in advance in order to receive the Zoom link.

This program is supported in part by a grants from the Otis and Sheffield Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.