This year's theme, "Making the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Work for Tribal Communities," looks to explain, understand, implement, and critique the declaration through a broad range of interrogations. With an understanding that Indigenous peoples need to be informed, supported, mobilized and willing to negotiate with nation states to acknowledge and uphold their collective human rights. Conference attendees will address the needs for Indigenous individuals and tribal communities to understand how to implement the articles of the declaration for their legal, political, and cultural benefit.

The Collaborations on Indigenous Studies Project (CISP) invites graduate students to submit proposals for a graduate student colloquium on the theme of Indigenous Spaces: Pushing the Boundaries of History, Bodies, Geographies, and Politics, to take place at Columbia University in the City of New York on February 15, 2012. Contributors are encouraged to think about ‘Indigenous spaces’ that connect Indigenous communities, bodies (understood in a broad sense), histories, geographies, and academia. Graduate students interested in participating should submit a paper abstract recent CV as email attachments to the colloquium organizers, Aurélie Roy and Maria John, at indigenous.spaces@gmail.com.