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Settler Oktoberfest! Audrey Ricke, Oktoberfest in Brazil: Domestic Tourism, Sensescapes, and German Brazilian Identity, University of Alabama Press, 2023

20Dec25

Description: Oktoberfest in Brazil: Domestic Tourism, Sensescapes, and German Brazilian Identity is one of the first ethnographies to analyze the tourism industry based on German cultural heritage in southern Brazil. Southern Brazil’s booming domestic tourism industry draws more than 500,000 people to events such as the Oktoberfest in Blumenau. Ricke investigates domestic tourism as sensescapes, focusing on the multiple and layered meanings associated with tourism’s sensory experiences and interactions. The author also introduces the “economy of aesthetics” as a new framework to capture how the sensescapes associated with domestic tourism are intertwined in the negotiation of ethnic, national, and transnational identities. These sensescapes also intersect with discourses on class and race, which are examined as well. Oktoberfest in Brazil leads readers on a tour through German Brazilian home gardens, folk dance performances, and the largest Oktoberfest in Brazil. These sensory-rich spaces of interaction provide access to different perspectives and types of identity negotiation at multiple levels from the local to the transnational. Ricke illustrates how the emotions and sensory experiences of these sensescapes associated with German cultural heritage function as a means for German Brazilians to negotiate senses of belonging as Brazilians as well as their ethnic and transnational identities. This book also provides historical and contemporary insights into the politics of citizenship associated with cultural heritage. As politics become more polarized, the need to analyze different ways of communicating through sensory experiences increases. The unique contribution of the economy of aesthetics framework is its ability to capture the influential power of sensory experience in the negotiation of identity and senses of belonging and citizenship more broadly. It provides new insights into how and why some sensory experiences within domestic tourism foster belonging and identity while other experiences reinforce social distinctions and national divisions.


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Settler patriarchy: Jordan Lea Johnson, ‘Angelina in the Archives: Tracing Heteropatriarchy and Settler Colonialism in Local Histories of the Pineywoods’, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 46, 3, 2025, pp. 121-151

20Dec25

Abstract: This article draws on Native feminist theories and critical settler colonial studies to analyze the role of heteropatriarchy and settler colonialism in local histories of the East Texas Pineywoods, occupied Caddo lands. Taking up accounts from the early modern colonial period alongside more contemporary examples, I conduct a feminist genealogical analysis of a Caddo woman known to the settler archive as Angelina. Characterized as the “Pineywoods Pocahontas” within local history and lore of East Texas, Angelina is situated within a legacy of Native women imagined to be aligned with colonial interests through their romanticized attachments to white settler men. As with other famous Native women, settler stories comprehend Angelina according to heteropatriarchal norms of gender and sexuality, imagining her as submissive and accommodating while framing colonization within a teleological narrative of US history. In colonial journals and memoirs, as well as contemporary paintings, murals, and local histories, settler stories frame Angelina through the lens of heteropatriarchy and colonial modernity, confining Caddo peoples and societies to a prehistoric past while eliding Caddo sovereignty in the present and denying Caddo futures. I apply Native feminist theorizations of gender, sexuality, and colonialism to representations of Angelina to denaturalize the heteropatriarchal replacement narratives that continue to authorize settlers as the rightful inhabitants of Caddo homelands, framing local history narratives and settler storytelling practices as one way that settler colonialism is romanticized in the past, enacted in the present, and normalized in the future.


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Represented, but within settler colonialism: Loredana Giarrusso, ‘Contemporary Colonialism, Governmentality and the Pursuit of a Commonwealth Indigenous Body, 1973–2005’, Journal of Australian Studies, 2025

20Dec25

Abstract: This article examines Indigenous representative bodies in Australian politics from 1973 to 2005 with a particular focus on the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, the National Aboriginal Conference, the Council for Aboriginal Development and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. The examples of these Indigenous representative bodies illustrate the pervasive settler colonialism that has underpinned the government’s approach in Indigenous affairs and highlights the problematic nature of relations between the national government and Indigenous peoples. This entrenched settler colonialism reinforces ongoing colonial structures, maintaining the legitimacy of national government at the expense of Indigenous peoples’ political autonomy. The article reflects on the 2023 constitutional referendum proposal of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament as an outcome of the continued underlying settler colonial dynamics underpinning government interactions with Indigenous peoples conducted at the political level.


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German settlers without settler colonies (with illustrations): Rachel O’Sullivan, ‘Entangled Narratives of Colonialism: Promoting Overseas and Continental Expansion in Nazi Germany’, Copernico, 2025

19Dec25

Excerpt: Nazi Germany’s eastern expansion has meant the Nazi goal of Lebensraum (living space) is often solely associated with Eastern Europe. However, the justifications for claiming overseas colonies by colonial enthusiasts during the Third Reich were often strikingly similar to the narratives of those who supported eastern expansion. Although Nazi Germany is heavily associated with its eastern expansion during the Second World War, many groups did not abandon the fantasy of reestablishing a German empire in Africa, even after the National Socialists came to power with their clearly eastwardorientated ideology in 1933. In fact, from as early as 1934, Nazi state institutions, such as the “Kolonialpolitisches Amt der NSDAP” (NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy, KPA) under the leadership of war veteran Franz Ritter von Epp, officially planned for an eventual German return to Africa after the war. Meanwhile, colonial enthusiasts throughout Germany were eagerly producing material such as books and leaflets, attended specialized schools and organized events which promoted German overseas expansion. Such colonial enthusiasts were often members of the “Reichskolonialbund” (Reich Colonial League, RKB), also under the leadership of Epp, which was formed in 1933 when the “Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft” (German Colonial Society, founded in 1887) merged with other smaller organizations. While the KPA undertook all official planning for the future reclamation of the German colonies in Africa, the RKB raised awareness and educated the public on colonial matters.


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German settlers since 1880 (with illustrations): Tim Buchen, ‘The portrayal of the (Russian) German colonists as settlement pioneers 1880–1945’, Copernico, 2025

19Dec25

Excerpt: This article shows how German colonists from the Tsarist Empire were, by means of a colonialist discourse, made into instruments of the Germanization of Eastern Europe. Their supposed lack of sophistication was practically prerequisite for coping with the ostensibly primitive inhabitants and the untamed wilderness. During the 18th and up to the end of the 19th century, Germany saw extensive emigration. Many Germans who did not inherit a farm moved to places where land was cheaply available. While most emigrants went to America, many Germans also moved to Eastern Europe.


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German settlers during WWI (with illustrations): Ron Hellfritzsch, ‘On the Road to the ‘New Eastern Lands’: Plans for the German Colonization of the Baltic States during the First World War’, Copernico, 2025

19Dec25

Excerpt: During the First World War, the German Empire had far-reaching plans for expansion in Eastern Europe. The Baltic states in particular were destined to become a German settlement colony known as the “Neues Ostland” (new eastern lands). With hindsight, some of these plans appear as forerunners of National Socialist conquest policy. Calculations “for a new farm to be established in Courland” The Latvian National Library (Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka) in Riga has in its collection a small brochure featuring drawings and statistics with the cumbersome title “Capital requirements, economic equipment and yield estimate for a new farm to be established in Courland with a total area of 20 hectares”. Behind this seemingly dry title lies the hitherto barely researched history of a gigantic imperial project developed during the First World War, in which the entire Baltic region was to be transformed into a German settlement colony under the name “Neuland” (new lands), “Ostland” (eastern lands) or “neues Ostland” (new eastern lands). But why did so many Germans at that time regard the Baltic states in particular as a utopian space that seemed to offer far-reaching prospects for a future land grab by German settlers?


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Early Palestinian reflections on settler colonialism: John Harfouch, ‘”The being of Israel is the non-being of Palestine”: Understanding Zionism through the Work of Fayez Sayegh’, Liberated Texts, 10/11/25

19Dec25

Excerpt: November 10th, 2025, marks the fiftieth anniversary of UN Resolution 3379, when the United Nations General Assembly voted to declare Zionism a form of racism and racial discrimination. This statement effectively condemned Zionism as a racist political ideology and Israel as a racist state, to be relegated alongside other colonial, apartheid, and imperial state projects. Passing with a vote of 72 in favor and 32 against with 35 nations abstaining, it was overwhelmingly supported by the newly liberated Third World countries who saw the statement as a challenge to American and European hegemony. Resolution 3379 was not the work of a single individual. Nonetheless, several Palestinian intellectuals deserve special recognition for their efforts in passing the resolution. Foremost amongst them is Fayez Sayegh, who spearheaded the effort and argued the Palestinian case on the Assembly floor. This review will work through Sayegh’s writings to come to a better understanding as to just what he and his counterparts within the Palestine Liberation Organization meant when they argued that Zionism is racism. How did they understand ‘racism’ and where does Zionist racism fit within what Sayegh called ‘the Palestine Problem’ more generally? Given that context what then is ‘anti-racism’? Is racism the appropriate lens through which to approach the problem? Readers may know Fayez Sayegh from his 1965 essay, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine. That was the first publication from the PLO Research Center, which Sayegh founded and directed for a short period. While interpreting Sayegh’s statements on Resolution 3379, I draw from both his own and his colleagues’ writings for the PLO Research Center, so it is useful to have some idea as to what that Center was. In its 18 years of operation in Beirut the Center published a total of 340 books. At its peak, the Center employed roughly 80 full-time researchers in a 6-storey building in downtown Beirut.


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Assimilation in the French colony: Nadia Zerrouk, ‘French assimilation in Algeria: Between its logical aspects and the racism of colonialism’, Art Law and Accounting Reporter, 44, 2, 2025, pp. 201-212

19Dec25

Abstract: This study aims to examine the reality of French assimilation policy in Algeria—between its purportedly logical justifications and the inherent racism of colonialism. Through this research, we seek to address the main issues related to the attitudes of Muslim Algerians toward France, the extent to which they were influenced by its civilization, and their attachment to their own identity and Islamic civilization. We also aim to provide a clear picture of the assimilation policy and to show how it represented a major dilemma for the colonial authorities, whether in terms of its partial or total application, or whether it was merely an abstract concept devoid of any real political or legal implementation. The study further highlights the positions taken by the French Parliament regarding this policy. Methodologically, we rely on a historical-critical approach to analyze the gap between the assimilationist French discourse and the actual political and legal practices in Algeria, drawing on important French sources. The study reveals that the colonial authorities were not genuinely willing to implement an assimilationist policy toward the Muslim Algerian population, because their objective was not to produce a society similar to French society in language, religion, customs, traditions, or ways of thinking. Nor was their goal to create French citizens with the same rights enjoyed by native Frenchmen.     Instead of true assimilation, the colonial administration pursued partial and limited forms of integration—such as the teaching of the Christian religion to undermine Islamic identity, recruitment into the colonial army, the employment of a small number of Algerians, mixed marriages, and migration to France. These measures aimed to produce a society stripped of inherited traditions, foundations, balance, and identity, in order to weaken its spirit of resistance. However, Algerians fully understood France’s intentions in their country: to spread fear and death, dispossess them of their lands and property, and reduce them to servitude. Thus, they rejected French “civilization,” being aware of its true meaning—namely, the eradication of their Islamic identity, to which they steadfastly clung. Ultimately, they demonstrated to France that its presence in Algeria was destined to come to an end.


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Settler medicine and the question of the body: Nina Salouâ Studer, ‘Female Agents of Colonialism: Women Doctors in Algeria at the Turn of the Century’, The Maghreb Review, 50, 4, 2025, pp. 423-438

19Dec25

Abstract: Dorothée Chellier was born in Algiers in 1860 to French settler parents and became the first female French doctor in colonial Algeria, after completing her studies in Paris. As she had in-depth knowledge of the country, she was sent on “medical missions” to various parts of remote Algeria in the 1890s with the express goal of observing the lives and medical problems of “native” women. Chellier published a short book about a mission to the Aurès region in 1895, in which she focused on gynaecological issues among Algerian women. She often described how these women voluntarily contacted and trusted her, apparently eager to get help from a female French doctor. She also highlighted the importance of female medical experts for the future of France’s colonial project in Algeria, as Muslim women had been mostly hidden from her male counterparts throughout the 19 thcentury. This article proposes to analyse Chellier’s detailed descriptions of (the limitations of) the agency of Algerian women and contrast this with her own actions, influences and reception. Upon publication in 1895, her book was well received in French newspapers and her pioneering work served as an example to those female French doctors, like Hélène Abadie-Feyguine and Françoise Legey, who became active around the turn of the century in colonial Algeria. While sympathetic to many aspects of the lives of Algerian women, it is important to understand Chellier as an agent of colonialism. She defined her goals as providing medical help to formerly neglected groups in Algeria, as well as helping to “educate” the masses that she clearly viewed as being ignorant and unwilling to conform with France’s guidance. This was in line with the ideology of France’s paternalistic mission civilisatriceand with the opinions professed by her male colleagues.


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Settler ecofascism: Casey A. Williams, ‘Settler Ecofascism, Fossil Capitalism, and Democratic Crisis’, Environmental Communication, 2025

19Dec25

Abstract: This chapter considers the racially motivated mass shooting in El Paso, Texas in 2019 as an expression of “settler ecofascism” – a distinct variant of ecofascism that yokes settler colonial justifications for racial violence to neo-Malthusian concerns about environmental degradation. Analyzing the rationale for murder laid out in the perpetrator’s manifesto, the chapter suggests that settler ecofascism is an antidemocratic environmental politics that is symptomatic of a deeper crisis of US democracy, in which the state’s perceived failure to manage core contradictions of a specifically fossil capitalism has further eroded the legitimacy of liberal democracy and created space for politics associated with the “ecofascist” right. Studying the episode in this context helps to explain both the mainstreaming of ecofascist ideas in recent years, as well as the limitations of “emergency” rhetoric in climate change communications. The episode suggests that persuading publics that climate change is an “emergency” does not guarantee that they will come to support effective, just, or humane responses. To the contrary: characterizing climate change as an “emergency,” without outlining a plausible strategy for resolving it, creates fertile ground for movements advocating a reactionary politics of personal or group preservation as necessary to manage the fallout from ecological catastrophe.


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