The Indigenous Speakers Series is honoured to present Dr. Kim TallBear, professor, author, and expert in historical and ongoing roles of science and technology in the colonization of Indigenous peoples.
About Kim TallBear
Kim TallBear (she/her) is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, a Dakota nation in present-day South Dakota. She is a Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus. From 2015 to 2025, she was a Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta where she held a Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Environment, and subsequently a Tier I CRC in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society.
Dr. TallBear is the author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. She is the co-founder of the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) Canada. She has advised the President of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) on issues related to genomics and Indigenous peoples. She has also advised museums on exhibits related to race and science.
In addition to studying genome science disruptions to Indigenous governance and to Indigenous self-definitions, Dr. TallBear studies colonial disruptions to Indigenous sexualities. She is a regular panelist on the weekly Indigenous current affairs podcast, Media Indigena. She is also a regular media commentator in outlets such as CBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, the LA Times, APTN, and the BBC on topics pertaining to Indigenous peoples, science, and technology; on the politics of self-indigenization; and on Indigenous sexualities. She is a former Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow (2018-2021).
You can follow her on Bluesky @kimtallbear.bsky.social and read her occasional posts on her Substack newsletter, Unsettle: Indigenous affairs, cultural politics & (de)colonization.
Flesh, Rivers, Sky, Stones
The 100s Method and Multiply Relating
This autotheory talk (autobiographical narrative informed by critical theory) is organized around a series of 100-word vignettes that describe relations with both humans and nonhumans.
Over a decade ago, Kim TallBear began a 100s writing practice to focus on human “nonmonogamous” relating. Being a traveller, her 100s soon began to consider the role of nonhumans in living a daily life connected to place—both home and away. After a decade of practicing “solo polyamory,” TallBear became what Andrea Zanin calls “post-nonmonogamous.” Or did she?
This talk, in part through 100-word poetic vignettes, attempts to break down conceptual binaries between monogamy and nonmonogamy, human and nonhuman relating, and redefines “promiscuity” as abundance, not excess. In an ongoing 100s practice, Kim TallBear works to more faithfully theorize from a Dakota social and geographic standpoint, more-than-monogamous and more-than-human relating.
Dr. TallBear's talk will be followed by a Q & A moderated by Dr. David T. Fortin, Professor in the School of Architecture.
Please note: Registration is appreciated but not required. Everyone is welcome!
Registration
Watch past recordings from our Indigenous Speakers Series on YouTube.