Jason BlackJason Black will discuss the issue of Native American mascots in sports in a free public lecture Friday.

Speaker to address issues raised by Indigenous mascots

The issue of Native American mascots in sports raises passions but also a raft of often-unasked questions: Which voices get a hearing in an argument? What meanings do we ascribe to mascots? Who do these mascots really represent?

Jason Black, professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, will address these questions and more in his free public presentation “Indigenous Mascotting in Canadian and American Contexts,” over the noon hour Friday, March 6, in room 145, Human Kinetics Building.

Dr. Black is the co-author with Andrew C. Billings of Mascot Nation: The Controversy over Native American Representations in Sports. He is currently working on a Fulbright project in transnational studies at Brock University’s Centre for Canadian Studies that compares Indigenous mascotting practices and decolonial resistance in Canada and the United States.

This lecture is part of the Faculty of Human Kinetics Distinguished Speakers’ Series.

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