The unbordering of settler colonial studies: Lynn Stephen, ‘Settler colonialism in Latin American and Native studies: an interview with Shannon Speed’, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 19, 4, 2024, pp. 401-409 | settler colonial studies blog

The unbordering of settler colonial studies: Lynn Stephen, ‘Settler colonialism in Latin American and Native studies: an interview with Shannon Speed’, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 19, 4, 2024, pp. 401-409

14Jan25

Excerpt: In Native Studies in the north, the analytic frame of settler colonialism has been very productive in providing insights into the nature of the state. A fundamental tenet of settler colonialism is that the settlers came to stay, necessitating dispossession and elimination of the existing population. In Patrick Wolfe’s 2006 classic formulation, settler colonialism is a structure, not an event. That means its structure and logics are enduring, right? They do not end with ‘independence.’ Settler occupation itself is ongoing. That analytic lens, until recently, has only been applied in the Anglophone world. In Incarcerated Stories, I argue that in Latin America, European settlers came, stayed and dispossessed the Indigenous in similar ways as happened in the Anglophone world. Applying a settler colonial studies lens provides a different understanding of Latin American states, which are often called ‘post-colonial.’ They are described as states with ‘legacies of colonialism’ rather than states characterized by ongoing settler occupation. I think the concept of settler colonialism brings a lot to the study of Latin American states when we view them this way.

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