“Close Encounters of the Colonial Kind”

This talk is spoken in the voice of IZ, which represents the evolving field that began as American Indian or Native American studies in the USA in the second half of the 20th century. Today, Critical Indigenous Studies brings together multiple Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty political movements around the world as they intellectually engage the academy. As Aileen Moreton-Robinson writes, “Indigenous-centered approaches to knowledge production are thriving” globally in the 21st century. Our “object of study is colonizing power in its multiple forms, whether the gaze is on Indigenous issues or on Western knowledge production.” In this talk, Kim TallBear’s object of study and critical polydisciplinamorous engagement is a scientist character who searches for signs of “intelligent” life off-Earth.