Sightings from a Socio-narratology: In Dialogue with the Genesis Stories of Rural White Allies

Ph.D. Exit Seminar in the Graduate Field of Development Studies  

Abstract

In his exit seminar Mike Bishop will explore the vibrant stories shared with him by White anti-racist allies living in the North Country of New York state. Taking a dialogical interview approach and grounding his project in both place and historical context, Mike will describe how he worked with these stories through a socio-narratology method. His study addresses the damaging, dominant narratives circulating in rural New York state communities that dehumanize Black and Indigenous peoples, and their implications for social movements. He references development theorists, movement intellectuals, and Indigenous scholars  – as well as his own genesis stories as an aspiring ally – to connect questions and theories of socialization, memory, colonialism, and Land to his findings. Mike’s dialogues with these stories reveal participant breakthroughs, special features of rurality, qualities of stories that engage dominant positionalities, and the opportunities and limits of White settlers seeking solidarity with Indigenous-led movements for sovereignty.

About the candidate

Mike Bishop is a sociologist focusing on power, race and social movements in the rural US. Originally from western New York, He has spent more than twenty years in higher education creating campus-community partnerships, facilitating dialogues across difference, and designing civic engagement leadership programs. After receiving his BA in sociology from Georgetown University, Mike volunteered in Nicaragua, where he grappled with what it meant to be useful to community-driven development. Before working in higher education, he spent seven years as a youth counselor and completed a career-transition MEd at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Mike has taught introduction to sociology at his local community college, and most recently with Cornell’s center for community engagement he founded a bridge-building fellowship program with Haudenosaunee leaders, guided by the Two Row Wampum agreement or Gaswéñdah.