The Caribbean, Diaspora, and Atlantic Studies Program (CDA) will host a lecture with Shona N. Jackson titled "Involuntary Settlers, Voluntary Colonials: the Contingent Nature of Subaltern Freedoms in the Caribbean" on Wednesday, March 4 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in 315 Phillips Hall. 

Across political, historical, philosophical, and literary narratives, the post/colonial Caribbean has produced a new social structure and “grammar” of being that is the reinscription of the post-contact grammars of involuntary, subaltern settlers. 

“Involuntary Settlers, Voluntary Colonials” addresses the contingent nature of black freedom and belonging in the Americas alongside Indigenous subordination and struggles for sovereignty. Jackson’s talk argues for the responsibility of Caribbean, black Diaspora and South Asian studies to Indigenous Studies and for a rethinking of the political horizons of black labour epistemologies.

Shona N. Jackson is Associate Professor of English, and Associate Director of Graduate Studies at Texas A&M University. She is the author of Creole Indigeneity: Between Myth and Nation in the Caribbean (Minnesota 2012). Her recent publications include an invited column in The Stabroek News, “To be Anti-black is to be Anti-indigenous: Reflections on Emancipation” (2014), an invited chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature (2014), and a co-edited section of Callaloo on “Postcoloniality and Blackness” (2014). She is currently at work on a second book titled "Marxism, History, and Indigenous Sovereignty in the Caribbean."

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Sarolta Petersen in advance at 319-335-3862.