POSTCOLONIAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF THE U.S. PAST: REVISION OF THE ROLE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

DOI 10.17721/2521-1706.2025.20.13

Artem Kosheliev,

Ph. D. (History), Assistant Professor, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6713-9993

Abstract. One of the defining features of contemporary democratic societies is their capacity for critical reflection on their own past and for the inclusion of historically excluded groups into national historical narratives. In recent decades, this tendency has increasingly manifested itself in the humanities at U.S. universities, where established interpretations of American history are being reconsidered through concepts of colonialism, trauma, race, and power.

The article aims to analyze postcolonial approaches to interpreting the past of the United States within contemporary academic research conducted at American universities. Drawing on participation in the Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars (SUSI) program organized with the support of the U.S. Department of State, the author examines how the historical experience of African Americans and Indigenous peoples of North America is conceptualized within the framework of American Studies. Particular attention is given to seminars and lectures held at Seattle University, Tulane University (New Orleans), and Georgetown University (Washington, D. C.), where issues of racial, cultural, and historical memory were analyzed through the lens of postcolonial theory.

The methodological framework of the study combines qualitative analysis of academic discourse with elements of participant observation, comparative analysis of teaching practices, and conceptual analysis of postcolonial theoretical categories employed in contemporary U.S. historiography.

The scientific novelty of the research lies in identifying the growing tendency to integrate postcolonial strategies into the teaching of U.S. history, which leads to a revision of established historical narratives and promotes the inclusion of previously marginalized groups. The article demonstrates that contemporary American humanities increasingly engage with the concepts of ‘colonial trauma’, ‘racial time’, and other analytical tools for reinterpreting the national past.

Conclusions. It is shown that the postcolonial approach in modern American academia not only contributes to rethinking the nation’s own past but also shapes a new type of historical consciousness centered on recognizing the experiences of the ‘others’ – African Americans, Indigenous peoples, and ethnic and cultural minorities. Such an approach enables a critical reconsideration of traditional perceptions of American history, particularly its foundational narratives of freedom, democracy, and progress, within the broader critique of colonialism and racial hierarchy

Key words: postcolonial studies, United States, African Americans, Indigenous peoples, historical memory, critical fabulation, racial time.

Submitted: 08.09.2025

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References:

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