Humanities Center, Digital Humanities Series: Tiffany D. Creegan Miller, "From Tz'ib' to Kematz'ib': Decolonial Ontologies of Maya Orality, Recorded Knowledge, and Digital Media in Indigenous Guatemala," Thursday, October 26th, 5pm, ZOOM

Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 5 p.m.

Tiffany D. Creegan Miller: "From Tz'ib' to Kematz'ib': Decolonial Ontologies of Maya Orality, Recorded Knowledge, and Digital Media in Indigenous Guatemala," Thursday, October 26th, 5:00 PM, ZOOM

Zoom: https://csuchico.zoom.us/j/88561594318pwd=MW5CZHpVRHUyOERSRW1WOVpOc09rZz09

Challenging distinctions between "old" and "new" media and narratives about the deprecation of orality in favor of inscribed forms, in The Maya Art of Speaking Writing I draw from Maya epistemologies of recorded knowledge (tz'ib') and orality (tzij, choloj, ch'owen) to observe expressive work across media and languages. In my talk, I will first provide an overview of the overarching argument of the book, before moving to specific examples of K'iche' Maya poet Humberto Ak'abal's work: the video recordings available on YouTube of "Xalolilo lelele'," an onomatopoeic song about a parakeet that simultaneously invokes the K'iche' Mayan language and the language of the Guatemalan natural world. Given the unique ways that the video-hosting platform impacts the content and overall presentation of the song, I argue that there are multiple ways for the song to be mediated – and remediated – across digital modalities of tz'ib' as the K'iche' poet obliges audiences to listen to Indigenous voices, inviting them to promote Indigenous language use and broader understandings of sonoric cultural production.

Dr. Tiffany D. Creegan Miller is an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies and director of the Oak Institute for Human Rights at Colby College. Her published work focuses on contemporary Indigenous literature and decolonial critical theory, with an emphasis on orality, performance, and linguistic revitalization initiatives. She is the author of The Maya Art of Speaking Writing: Remediating Indigenous Orality in the Digital Age (University of Arizona Press, 2022) and a co-editor of Kemtzij: Weaving Reciprocal Indigenous Ontologies in Kaqchikel Maya Arts (an edited volume under advanced contract with Amherst College Press). As a speaker of Kaqchikel Maya, she is also an advisor to Wuqu' Kawoq: Maya Health Alliance, a medical NGO in Guatemala that provides health care in the Kaqchikel language and promotes Indigenous language rights.

Humanities Center

Director: Erin K. Kelly

ekkelly@csuchico.edu