Conquest, Memory, and Indigenous Resistance lecture explores conflict across history

Youngstown State University will present “Conquest, Memory, and Indigenous Resistance” Monday, Oct. 12, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor.

Spanning ancient civilizations, colonial North America and the British Empire, the session will explore how warfare, conquest and Indigenous resistance have been experienced, narrated and remembered across time. The discussion will examine warfare among the ancient Maya, encounters between English settlers and Indigenous peoples in 17th-century New England and resistance to British imperial expansion.

The session will feature Luke Hardy, professor of English and coordinator of English graduate studies at YSU, whose research examines early American literature and Puritan New England; Matt O’Mansky, professor of anthropology, an archaeologist whose research focuses on ancient Maya civilization, including political organization, religion and warfare; and David Simonelli, professor of history, whose scholarship focuses on Britain and the British Empire and includes work on cultural history. Martha Pallante will moderate the discussion.

The event is free and open to the public and is part of YSU’s four-part “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Military History” lecture series. The series continues Nov. 11 with “Remembering War: Memory, Media and Cultural Trauma,” Feb. 23 with “War and Social Transformation” and March 22 with “Landscapes of Conflict: Environment, Borders, and Military Space.”

Presented by YSU’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of Art, the series brings together faculty, students, staff, veterans and community members for interdisciplinary discussions examining the historical, cultural, social and political dimensions of military conflict.