Tag: Colonialism
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Botany’s Colonial Present and Alternative Futures: A Conversation with Banu Subramaniam
in PodcastsLaleh Ahmad speaks with Banu Subramaniam about her recent book Botany of Empire: Plant Worlds and the Scientific Legacies of Colonialism. Their conversation explores how colonialism shaped botany and considers how we might imagine alternative futures.
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The Colonial Costs of Shipbreaking
in EssaysThe shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh is often hailed as an economic success story. Md. Borhan Uddin and Kimberley Thomas explain why this industry is, in fact, an extension of colonial logics.
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The Colonial Roots of Catholic Plants
in EssaysCatholic churches in the U.S. are decorated with a shared, recurring cycle of select plants. Rebecca Laurent and Emily Burke dig into the historical and political roots of poinsettias and Easter lilies and what their floral glory tells us about nature, religion, and colonialism.
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Plants By Any Other Name
in EssaysWhat’s in a name? Knowledge, power, and history, Jens Benöhr, Constanza López, and Kara Lena Virik argue. The scientific names of plants root botanical knowledge in colonial relationships. To decolonize ecology, we must embrace the pluriverse of knowing, naming, and living with the world.
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Knowledge Politics and the Making of Indian Environmental History: A Conversation with Ramachandra Guha
in PodcastsLaleh Ahmad speaks with Ramachandra Guha on his new book, Speaking with Nature (2024). They discuss the history of environmentalism in India and how it differs from the West, especially through key thinkers’ intertwining of social justice and nature.
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The Colonial Depths of Seasteading
in EssaysIvey Wexler draws parallels between libertarian’s interest in seasteading to oceanic colonialism in the nineteenth century, especially as Robert Stevenson illustrated in The Ebb-Tide.
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Bearing Colonialism in Japanese Popular Culture
in EssaysBenjamin Chin-Hung Kao looks beyond the often-cutesy appearance of bears in Japanese popular culture to discover their role in the country’s violent colonial history and present.
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Resisting and Reimagining Agricultural Systems in Hawai’i: A Conversation with Andrea Brower
in PodcastsCathleen McCluskey speaks with Andrea Brower on the intersections of colonialism, neoliberalism, and plantations in agricultural systems—from Hawai’i and beyond. How might possibilities of a better future be imagined through political and social resistance?
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Conserving Biodiversity without Preserving Settler Ecologies
in EssaysCharis Enns & Brock Bersaglio use Laikipia County, Kenya to trace connections between settler colonial power and conservation, offering an “other” way of maintaining biodiversity that prioritizes Indigenous Peoples and their endangered livestock species.
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Reforesting Pikirangi, Reckoning with Colonial Histories in Aotearoa/New Zealand
in EssaysSadie Rittman explores the history and significance of Pikirangi—a reforestation project—in Aotearoa/New Zealand.