Unsettling Thoreau

Author John J. Kucich discusses his book Unsettling Thoreau: Native Americans, Settler Colonialism, and the Power of Place (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024).

Drawing on Indigenous studies and critiques of settler colonialism, as well as new materialist approaches that illustrate Thoreau’s radical reimagining of the relationship between humans and the natural world, Unsettling Thoreau explores the stakes of Thoreau’s effort to live mindfully and ethically in place when living alongside, or replacing marginalized peoples. By examining the whole scope of his writings, including the unpublished Indian Notebooks, and placing them alongside Native writers and communities in and beyond New England, this book gauges Thoreau’s effort to use Indigenous knowledge to reimagine a settler colonial world, without removing him from its trappings.

John J. Kucich is a Professor of English at Bridewater State University, teaching courses in American literature, Native American Literature, English education, and sustainability. He has coordinated the Sustainability Program and the Integrative Learning and Research Initiative. He currently serves as president of the Thoreau Society. Before coming to BSU, he taught high school English for ten years. He has published two books: Unsettling Thoreau: Native Americans, Settler Colonialism, and the Power of Place (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024) and Ghostly Communion: Cross-Cultural Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century America (Dartmouth College Press, 2004), and edited two collections: Thoreau in the Nick of Time (Mercer University Press, 2025) and Rediscovering the Maine Woods: Thoreau’s Legacy in an Unsettled Land (University of Massachusetts Press, 2018).

Co-sponsored with the Concord Free Public Library.