Wombed Hollows, Sacred Trees: Burial Mounds and Processual Indigenous Subjectivity & Earthworks Tour

Thursday, April 14, 4-6PM | 18th Avenue Library with Zoom Livestream

Since the eighteenth century, settler cultures have represented North American burial mounds as ancient “mysteries” and historical “enigmas”—sites of Indigenous vanishing that provide settlers with opportunities for creating scientific discovery, economic profit, and cautionary tales of angry ghosts from “lost” civilizations. But there are other narratives to tell about these sophisticated earthworks, other conceptual frames for understanding not only their functions as technologies for interment but also their ongoing power as symbols for Indigenous presence. Drawing from his new book Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts, Chadwick Allen analyzes works by contemporary Native writers and artists that demonstrate Indigenous conceptions of interment within mounded earth. These provocative “earth”-works unsettle dominant narratives by reactivating Indigenous understandings of burial mounds as active sites of renewal and regeneration.

For more information and registration, visit go.osu.edu/allen

or scan the QR Code below

Register for the event IN-PERSON here.

Register for Session 1 VIA ZOOM here.

All events sponsored by the CSR are free and open to the public. This event is co-sponsored with the American Indian Studies Program in the Center for Ethnic Studies.

The Zoom livestream of this event will be presented with automated closed captions. If you wish to request traditional CART services or other accommodations, please contact religion@osu.edu. Requests made by about 10 days before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

Starting at 6 p.m. Friday, March 11, masks will be optional in most indoor spaces on The Ohio State University campuses, including residence halls, dining facilities, classrooms, offices and the Ohio Union. In settings where masks are optional, students, faculty, staff and visitors can decide on an individual basis whether or not they will continue to wear a mask.

And don't miss the Newark Earthworks Tour!

Saturday, April 16, 10AM | OSU Newark Campus

The Center for the Study of Religion is thrilled to be sponsoring a curated tour of Newark Earthworks with guest scholar Chadwick Allen and Director of the Newark Earthworks Center, John Low. 

The tour will begin at 10am with lunch to follow at the Newark campus. 

Anyone interested in a bus ride leaving from the Ohio Union should contact our Program Coordinator, Nick Spitulski, at religion@osu.edu.

For those who would like to attend this event, please RSVP to our email at religion@osu.edu. All those who RSVP will be receiving updated information about meeting times via email. Those who wish to drive on their own and meet us at the Newark campus should also RSVP and will receive updated information closer to the event date.

Email religion@osu.edu to RSVP and for additional information; or visit the the Department of Religion.

This event is hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and the American Indian Studies program.