Purchase tickets here.
This presentation will focus on historical photographs of Diné as subjects and explore the workings of colonial archives and how primary sources such as photographs shape how we “know” people and places, thereby reinforcing stereotypes that have resonated across decades. Simultaneously, these same photographs become the vehicle for renewed storytelling for Diné. What might we learn, if anything, about Diné from photographs? What might photographs tell us about Diné history? How do photographs become a site for renewed storytelling?
Jennifer Denetdale (Diné) is a professor and chair of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She is best known for her book, Reclaiming Diné History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita, and has published two Navajo histories for young adults and a children’s book. She is the author of numerous book chapters and journal essays. Her research is focused in Diné Studies with attention to history, gender and sexuality, and theories of settler colonialism and decolonization. She co-curated two museum exhibitions of Milton Snow’s photographs, one at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (2025-26) and the Navajo Nation Museum, which opened August 8, 2025. She is the co-author of a forthcoming book on Milton Snow’s photographs that are largely from the Navajo Nation Museum’s collection, which will be published in October 2026 by the University of New Mexico Press. She is from Tohatchi, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation, and currently resides in Albuquerque.
