November 11, 2024 On Campus
Brace Student Fellow Presentation
Elliot Weir ’26
In our society, many people may have only recently learned of transgender and nonbinary people. However, in many Native American tribes, gender was not traditionally strictly binary. These societies featured people who did not fit neatly into binary gender categories. Although individual tribes used various terms to refer to these people, the modern umbrella term is “two-spirit.” During colonization, two-spirit people were targeted because of their central roles in Native American communities as well as their transgression of European conceptualizations of gender.
Elliot Weir ’26 investigates the pre-contact lives of two-spirit people and how these lives have changed since contact with European colonizers. He further explores how, after centuries of suppression, two-spirit communities are now beginning to reclaim their former place of respect. Weir’s research aims to educate about the history of two-spirit people and their resilience.
Open to the PA community; dinner will be served.
School Room, Abbot HallTwo-Spirit People in Native American Communities: Pre-contact, Colonization, and Decolonization
5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., School Room, Abbot HallBrace Student Fellow Presentation
Elliot Weir ’26
In our society, many people may have only recently learned of transgender and nonbinary people. However, in many Native American tribes, gender was not traditionally strictly binary. These societies featured people who did not fit neatly into binary gender categories. Although individual tribes used various terms to refer to these people, the modern umbrella term is “two-spirit.” During colonization, two-spirit people were targeted because of their central roles in Native American communities as well as their transgression of European conceptualizations of gender.
Elliot Weir ’26 investigates the pre-contact lives of two-spirit people and how these lives have changed since contact with European colonizers. He further explores how, after centuries of suppression, two-spirit communities are now beginning to reclaim their former place of respect. Weir’s research aims to educate about the history of two-spirit people and their resilience.
Open to the PA community; dinner will be served.