Indigenous Studies:
What Does It Mean to Us?
Lightning Talk | Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 2:45pm – 4:00pm EST
In late 2019, librarians at the Princeton University Library began responding to university-level interest in Indigenous Studies. The pandemic actually helped us work across geographical distances. Problems with definitions emerged quickly. Our metadata was loaded with problematic aspects. A U.S. centric viewpoint was difficult to resist. We explored terms such as appropriation, essentialism and reparations. It was a challenge to articulate what mattered, what we already had collected and what we needed to collect. It was inspiring to see clear interest from undergraduates and graduate students in this field of study. We have created an Indigenous Studies Working Group, recognizing that effective liaison work in indigenous studies needs to cut across traditional boundaries such as Area Studies, Language Studies, history and politics. We have begun exploring how we in the library can improve our ability to handle intersectionality and layers of identity. We are looking for partners in our journey.
Presenter: Anu Vedantham
Dr. Anu Vedantham chairs the Indigenous Studies Working Group for the Princeton University Library, and is the Assistant University Librarian for Research Services. She has held library positions at Harvard and Penn, and has a doctorate in Higher Education Management from Penn’s Graduate School of Education.