The Ethics of Memory with David Treuer, Ryan Falcioni, and Bz Zhang

Join the Kenan Institute for Ethics for a talk and conversation on the ways we remember the past, whether visibly or invisibly, and how memory is a moral enterprise that shapes how we understand ourselves and how we imagine the future.

This multidisciplinary exploration of the ethics of memory begins with a lecture by New York Times-bestselling author and National Book Award finalist David Treuer, anthropologist, novelist and nonfiction writer, and professor of English at USC Dornsife. Ojibwe from the Leech Lake reservation in northern Minnesota, Treuer's work explores how popular narratives about Native Americans have relegated them to either the peripheries of American life or to the distant past - as exemplified by the treatment of Wounded Knee as the "final chapter" of their history. In his most recent nonfiction work, "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from the 1890 to the Present," Treuer blends history, reportage, and memoir to create a portrait of Native American survival and resistance through era after era of depredation.

Following the lecture, a conversation between Treuer, Ryan Falcioni, and Bz Zhang will open the theme of ethics and memory through multidisciplinary perspectives. A professor of philosophy at Chaffey College, Falcioni's scholarship explores the "deep story" that gave rise to the current iteration of Christian nationalism and its opposition to social justice initiatives. A Los Angeles-based architect, organizer and artist, Zhang's work explores the ways in which dominant ideologies are embedded in material forms as well as their physical and digital documentation.

MAKE AMERICA, an accompanying installation by Zhang at the Kenan Institute for Ethics in the West Duke Building on view on 3/17-3/29, will invite visitors to assemble and reassemble elements used to construct national memory, showcasing how physical and cultural constructions of place are entangled with each other.

This event is free and open to the public. The talk and conversation will be followed by a Q&A with the audience, with a reception and book signing afterwards.

This event is cosponsored by the Native America Studies Initiative and the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University.