“Conservation Biostorage, Indigenous Sovereignty, and the Biopolitics of Wild Life on Ice”
When
Please join us for our Fall 2026 Colloquium series for this special JP Jones Lecture in Social Theory!
Help us welcome Dr. Paul Robbins to present “Conservation Biostorage, Indigenous Sovereignty, and the Biopolitics of Wild Life on Ice”
This talk is free to attend and takes place in room S107 of the ENR2 building on Friday, October 16, 2026 from 3:30-5pm. All are welcome!
Be sure to wear a VEST!
Abstract:
Accompanying traditional habitat protection and restoration, conservation genetics (and prerequisite biopreservation) has been identified as a critical set of tools to help address wildlife extinction worldwide. The history, legacy and ongoing momentum of colonial settlement, however, confronts any such effort. This presentation reviews the promise and problems of biopreservation, within a legacy of colonialism, white settlement, and ongoing imbalances of power between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in North America. It further reviews an empirical effort to document and analyze existing biobanking policies in the US, relative to questions of Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Finally, following the insights of Dr. Kim TallBear, it briefly reflects on wildlife genetic storage in terms of both the pathological “Death/Survival Narrative” of settler biopolitics and the question of the vitalities and animacies of stored life.
Robbins, P., H. H. Hunt, F. Pelegri and J. Gilbert. 2023. “Sovereign genes: wildlife conservation, genetic preservation, and Indigenous data sovereignty.” Frontiers in Conservation Science 4.