My name is Hamzah Hanif and this is my third year in Knox College. At the moment I am majoring in Africana Studies with a minor in religious studies. I have many various academic and intellectual interests, mainly pertaining anti-colonial/decolonial studies from the likes of theorists and movements such as Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral as well as the American Indian Movement. I also have a great interest in theology. Moving forward into this course, I would like to understand more broadly the mechanisms and legislation which has upheld and reinforced the settler-colonial system in the United States and how it has been able to survive up to this point. In regards to my own knowledge regarding Indigenous American history, I have mainly studied through my own independent research and reading as I have found the American education system on topics such as settler-colonialism to be highly lacking. My familiarity has been mainly from people such as Patrick Wolfe, Sai Englert and J Sakai’s “Settlers” but also simply just watching the documentaries and news reports of Indigenous activism.
Hi Hamzah! Welcome to HIST 281! I’m glad your here and I look forward to your insights this term! I enjoyed reading about your interests in Africana studies and religious studies, and your interests in settler colonialism. We will certainly engage with the structure of settler colonialism a lot this term, and how Indigenous people responded and resisted to these systems.
I look forward to seeing how you engage with the course material and contribute to our discussions!