RadCasts

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine and Adam Muller, eds., The Erasure and Revitalization of Indigenous Cultures and Languages: A Special Issue of Genocide Studies International (Vol. 16., No. 2). A publication of the Zoryan Institute and University of Toronto Press.

This special issue of Genocide Studies International examines the erasure and revitalization of Indigenous cultures and languages a crucial area of analysis within genocide and human rights studies. The collection explores how Indigenous languages function as both targets and tools of survival. It emphasizes that language revitalization is not simply about preservation but is part of a larger movement for self-determination, sovereignty and resistance. It features articles by authors of a variety of disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to survey the terrain of language erasure and revitalization as it understood in 2025.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/native-american-studies

The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire (Duke UP, 2025) tells the history of the making and unmaking of empire in the diverse and decentralized Indigenous landscapes of the Northern Andes. Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez examines the intricate and disputed processes that reshaped the peoples and landscapes of present-day Colombia into a kingdom within the global Spanish monarchy. Drawing on correspondence, visitation reports, judicial records, maps, textiles, and accounting and legal documents created by Europeans and Indigenous peoples, Muñoz-Arbeláez outlines the painstaking century-long effort between 1530 and 1630 to consolidate the kingdom. A diverse group of people that included Indigenous interpreters, scribes, and intellectuals spearheaded these projects, which eventually expanded colonial control outward from its base in the highland Andean plateaus down to the lowland river valleys. Meanwhile, autonomous Indigenous political projects constantly threatened imperial rule, as rebels often encircled the kingdom and seized the corridors that linked it to Spain. By foregrounding the kingdom’s difficult establishment and tenuous hold on power, Muñoz-Arbeláez challenges traditional understandings of imperial politics and the myriad ways Indigenous peoples participated in, disputed, and negotiated the establishment of colonial rule.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/native-american-studies