As Tufts faculty members, we write in support of the official celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day, in substitution for the university’s celebration of Columbus Day.
Changing the name of this holiday is a chance for our campus to acknowledge and challenge the legacies of genocide and slavery of which Christopher Columbus is a symbolic and historical forebear. In this we join cities, universities and organizations across the country who renounce Columbus’ record as settler colonial governor (he directly oversaw the murder and enslavement of 7.5 million people) and the mythology of his “discovery” of lands and people who had been thriving here for many thousands of years.
Changing the name is not only about renouncing this history, it is an opportunity to reorganize ourselves in the present. We write in solidarity with student organizers who, in petitioning for this change, inspire intellectual debate and growth on our campus. By changing the name we can support the efforts of our students and continue to imagine how we can be organized better: with a greater consciousness of the university’s complicity in settler colonialism and toward the fostering of indigenous life and thought on and beyond our university.
In asking our colleagues to vote on Feb. 24 to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day, we see an opportunity to harness one of Tufts’ strengths—its commitment to critical thinking and conscience. Changing the name is an occasion to confront interlocking systems of domination, from histories of colonialism and slavery to the uneven resource distributions that produce endemic poverty and shortened lifespans today. It is also an opportunity to find new ways at Tufts to celebrate the flourishing traditions of Indigenous life and thought in the Americas—those stories of resistance and invention that the legacies of Columbus have never succeeded in erasing.
Signed,
Matt Hooley, American Studies
Adriana Zavala, Art History, American and Latino Studies
Lisa Lowe, English, American and Colonialism Studies
Amahl Bishara, Anthropology, Middle East Studies
Adlai Murdoch, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Africana Studies
Heather Curtis, Religion and American Studies
Pawan Dhingra, Sociology
Judith Haber, English
Elizabeth Remick, Political Science
Christina Sharpe, English, Africana Studies, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Sheriden Thomas, Drama & Dance
Hyunmin Yi, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Natalie Shapero, English
Thomas Abowd, GRALL/American Studies
Julian Agyeman, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
John Lurz, English
Jean Wu, American Studies
Sarah Sobieraj, Sociology
Ronna Johnson, English and American Studies
Ken Olum, Physics and Astronomy
Tom Ozden-Schilling, Anthropology
Helen Marrow, Sociology and American, Latin American and Latino Studies
Sabina Vaught, Education
Gary Goldstein, Physics and Astronomy
Steven Marrone, History
Kendra Field, History and Africana Studies
Elizabeth A. Foster, History
Paul Joseph, Sociology
Monica White Ndounou, Drama and Dance, Africana and American Studies, Film and Media
Shameka Powell, Education
Kamran Rastegar, German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures
Jeanne Marie Penvenne, History
Joseph Litvak, English
Francie Chew, Biology
Lee Edelman, English
Steve Cohen, Education
Orly Clerge, Sociology and Africana Studies
Xueping Zhong, German Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures
Ricky Crano, English
Natalie Masuoka, Political Science
Noe Montez, Drama and Dance
Cristelle Baskins, Art History
Pedro A Palou, Romance Languages
Sarah Pinto, Anthropology
Jeremy Melius, Art History
Freeden Oeur, Sociology
Ellen Pinderhughes, Child Study and Human Development
Ann Easterbrooks, Child Study and Human Development
Elizabeth Ammons, English Department and Environmental Studies Program
Jayanthi Mistry, Child Study and Human Development
Modhumita Roy, English
Sasha Fleary, Child Study and Human Development
Keith Maddox, Psychology
Karen Overbey, Art History
Jess Keiser, English
Jonathan E. Kenny, Chemistry and Environmental Studies
Sonia Hofkosh, English
Nick Seaver, Anthropology
Cathy Stanton, Anthropology
Laura Baffoni-Licata, Program of Italian Studies /Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Susan Koegel, Biology
Editor’s note: If you would like to send your response or make an Op-Ed contribution to the Opinion section, please email us at tuftsdailyoped@gmail.com. The Opinion section looks forward to hearing from you.
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