Can settler consciousness be transformed? Jesse Whattam, The Possibilities of Transforming Settler Consciousness: Community Spaces and White Settler Responsibility, MA Dissertation, Carleton University, 2019 | settler colonial studies blog

Can settler consciousness be transformed? Jesse Whattam, The Possibilities of Transforming Settler Consciousness: Community Spaces and White Settler Responsibility, MA Dissertation, Carleton University, 2019

20Nov19

Abstract: In Settler Colonial Theory, there is a growing body of work that looks at the ways settler colonization is being challenged. The understanding of how settlers are engaging with these potential transformations remains unclear. I build on Davis et. al’s (2017) idea of “transforming settler consciousness” to consider what conditions, spaces, and practices are facilitating white settlers to challenge settler coloniality. Working with five white settlers in community groups, I use a narrative inquiry methodology to ask what about these initiatives did, or did not, catalyze transformed settler consciousness? Through a political ontology framework, the stories shared reveal the paradoxes, challenges and complexities about what facilitates a politics of recognition (Coulthard 2014) and what facilitates spaces of ontological negotiation. While the former does not demand a transformation in settler consciousness, the later does and with that transformation, settlers have the potential to contribute to a radical transformation of settler coloniality.

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