Founded In    2008
Published   semiannually
Language(s)   English, Spanish
     

Fields of Interest

 

interdisciplinary

     
ISSN   ISSN: 1867-1519
     
Affiliated Organization   American Studies section of the English Department at Bielefeld University, Germany; "International Association of Inter-American Studies" (http://www.interam ericanstudies.net)
     
Editorial Board

General Editor:
Prof. Wilfried Raussert, Bielefeld University, Germany

Assistant Editors:
Alethea R. Wait, Bielefeld University
Christina Seeliger, Bielefeld University

Editorial Board Members:
Prof. Mita Banerjee, University Siegen, Germany
Prof. William Boelhower, University of Padua, Italy
Prof. Maryemma Graham, University of Kansas, USA
Dr. Luz Angélica Kirschner, Bielefeld University, Germany
Prof. John Carlos Rowe, University of Southern California, USA
Prof. David Ryan, University College Cork, Ireland
jun. Prof. Sebastian Thies, Bielefeld University, Germany

Main contact editor: Matthias Oppermann [matthias.oppermann@uni-bielefeld.de]

Submission Guidelines and Editorial Policies

Before submitting an article to FIAR please send a one-page abstract to fiar [at] interamerica [dot] de
The editors invite the submission of articles, event-scenes, interviews and reviews, appropriate to FIAR. Generally, submissions should not exceed 7500 words. All papers and proposals should be send as e-mail attachments (in MS Word or similar format) to fiar [at] interamerica [dot] de with the word “submission” in the subject line.

Submission of a paper to FIAR will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work. Papers presented at conferences can, with appropriate changes, be considered for publication. All submissions will undergo a double-blind review process.
Further submission instructions can be found in the “Submission Guidelines” section on our website, http://interamerica.de

     
Mailing Address
     

Journal’s Contact Information:
E-mail: fiar [at] interamerica [dot] de
Phone: [+49] 521-106-3641 (European Standard Time)
Fax: [+49] 521-106-2996
Mail:
Forum for Inter-American Research
American Studies Program
Postfach 100131
D-33501 Bielefeld
Germany

FIAR: Forum for Inter-American Research

The Forum for Inter-American Studies (FIAR) is the official electronic journal of the International Association of Inter-American Studies. FIAR was established by the American Studies Program at Bielefeld University in 2008.

We foster a dialogic and interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Americas. FIAR is a peer-reviewed online journal. Articles in this journal undergo a double-blind review process and are published in English and Spanish. We do not charge readers or institutions for full text access. In addition to written work we also publish selected audiovisual material of conference presentations, keynotes, and video features. The editorial board consists of a broad range of international scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

 

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Indigenous America - America Indígena, Volume 4, Number 2

Haunted by Spain: The Past and Identities in English and French America


One of the aspects of early identity formation in the imperial and colonial era and later in the phase of nation-building, was the way Spain haunted England and France, Canada and the United States. Looking back, the importance of Spain can be occluded, especially in the period of Anglo-American ascendancy from 1763 or, more certainly, from 1815, with the defeat of Napoleon. But this repression, displacement and negligence of Spain is less certain if we look forward from the landfall of Columbus in 1492. The very pillars of Anglo-American myths of the making of nation and empire, like Walter Ralegh and John Smith, looked in part to the Spaniards. Cort�(c)s was a model for them despite the making of the Black Legend of Spain in the wake of Las Casas. The Anglo-American use of Columbus as a differentiation from England after the War of Independence and the Columbian World Exposition of 1893 are cases in point. But Columbus��(tm) haunting is also accompanied by the Black Legend, which was brought back out in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The French texts, whether in Nicolas Le Challeux or in Montaigne, also represented the Spaniards in ambivalent ways and sometimes denounced them outright. Since then, the stereotyping of Hispanics has relived some of these negative and ambivalent feelings in these representations. Spain set many precedents in the New World and produced many texts about the Americas, but in the mythology of England and France and their colonies and former colonies, it could be relegated or criticized. For indigenous peoples, the situation is more complex still, and the haunting they suffer is from invasion and genocide, not just in relation to the Spanish, but to other Europeans and their descendants as well. This article will also briefly discuss Native perspectives by contemporary Native artists like Jeannette Armstrong and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Inventing Iroquoia? Migrating Tropes of Similarity and Heritage in Francophone Narratives of Colonial Possession


Today��(tm)s interest in inter-American connections brings back the texts and tropes of non-English founding figures such as Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain. These texts and tropes challenge us to rethink the European race of colonization also with regard to the cultural work that comparisons and alignments are able to perform. Since the texts of unsuccessful colonizers such as Cartier underwent significant change when they were edited, re-edited, translated and re-translated over the centuries, their canonization as pivotal exploration and contact literature in the early decades of the twentieth century warrants critical attention. Beyond the regional cultural importance of these texts and beyond their functions as ethnohistorical sources, their old and new presence in English-language contexts and their translated re-introduction in recent anthologies and curricula of Early America have paved the way for a critical engagement with the history of contact. A scrutiny of these texts and their tropes can lead to a better understanding of the cultural accommodations that were the hallmark of early colonial times; at the same time it also throw a new light on a history of claiming indigeneity and producing a native heritage that is by no means concluded today.

La nacionalización del indígena en tiempos de multiculturalismo neoliberal


Desde la vuelta a la democracia se ha iniciado en Chile un proceso de redefinición de la relación del Estado con los pueblos indígenas del país. Definiendo en una sola palabra de aparente sencillez este nuevo panorama social, legal e institucional, el multiculturalismo se ha instalado con fuerza en la arena pública. En este ensayo, examinamos la naturaleza política de este nuevo proyecto cultural nacional a trav�(c)s del análisis de la patrimonialización de las prácticas culturales indígenas llevada a cabo por el Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales. Inscribi�(c)ndonos en el nuevo campo de reflexión abierto por la antropología crítica del desarrollo y la etnografía del estado neoliberal, focalizamos nuestra atención sobre los mecanismos de nacionalización / territorialización de los pueblos nativos así como tambi�(c)n sobre la construcción de otros internos y externos en un contexto de apertura de las nuevas fronteras del capitalismo global y de hegemonía de la cultura neoliberal.

Lobbying for Global Indigenous Rights: The World Council of Indigenous Peoples (1975-1997)


The first-ever meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) in August 1982 in Geneva marked a milestone in international awareness of the plight of the worldâ€(tm)s aboriginal and native peoples. The mandate of this newly created supranational body â€" to review developments pertaining to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and to give special attention to the evolution of standards concerning the rights of indigenous populations â€" attracted from year to year a growing attendance of indigenous organizations, principally from the Americas.

Video – Entrevista a Walter Prodencio Magne Veliz (Embajador Boliviano en Alemania)


El 11 de Abril del 2011 Walter Prudencio Magne Veliz, Embajador del Estado Plurinacional de Boliva en Alemania, pronunció un discurso en el Coloquio de los Estudios Interamericanos de la Universidad de Bielefeld sobre los nuevos procesos en Boliva con una especial atención a la controversia de la cultivación de la coca. Nosotros, el Grupo de Estudios InterAmericanos, tuvimos la oportunidad de charlar con Ã(c)l sobre su trabajo como Embajador en Alemania y tambiÃ(c)n sobre los cambios en la política y la sociedad boliviana y sobre conceptos indígenas y su papel en el gobierno de Evo Morales.

Indigenous Claims and Uranium Mining on Mount Taylor, New Mexico, USA


While Indigenous claims are not a new field of investigations, the claims themselves carry more weight in settler colonies such as the United States where specific laws offer protection to the Indigenous minority. However, conflicting interests, and conflicting claims, render decision-making a difficult affair. Mount Taylor, New Mexico, is a case in point exhibiting all the facets of contemporary Indigenous claims. Moreover, with President Obama's announced ratification of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United States of America, the field is set to become even more complex.

Indigenous Peoples – Creating New “Borderlines“?


This paper deals with the conceptualizing of the Indigenous Peoples ‘categoryâ€(tm). Who are Indigenous Peoples? How has their identity been constructed by academics, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs and by themselves? The concept of indigenous peoples (or the Fourth World) has been widely discussed among scholars and politicians over the last few decades. It is also gradually starting to be used more and more by official representatives of the groups that could be considered indigenous. Is "indigeneity" a political and ideological concept similar to ethnicity or is it an essential characteristic of a specific group of people? I would like to discuss the distinction between the process of self-identification of formerly very distinctive groups and the process of creating a new global identity for these groups. What is the relationship between a local identity, such as being a person from a small reserve in Canada, and being an indigenous person at the same time? What kind of borders are more important and enduring for Native identification â€" geographical or symbolic?

Negotiating Violence and Identity in Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer


Other Issues

, Volume 4, Number 1
Cine y Frontera - Cinema and the Border, Volume 3, Number 2
Tracing the Americas , Volume 3, Number 1
Ethnic Identity Politics, Transnationalization, and Transculturation in American Urban Popular Music, Volume 2, Number 2
Remembering and Forgetting: Memory in Images and Texts, 2
Identity Politics in the Americas and Beyond, 1