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Settler behaviour: Theo Di Castri, ‘The settler colonial roots and neoliberal afterlife of Problem Behavior Theory’, Journal of The History of Behavioural Sciences, 2022

13Aug22

Abstract: Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) is an influential psychosocial theory that has shaped—and continues to shape—much research on adolescent development in the United States and abroad. It is the product of over a half‐century of research conducted by psychologists‐cum‐behavioral scientists Lee and Richard Jessor. This article engages two striking features of the history of PBT. First, it tracks how,
and to what effect, a theory elaborated to explain the so‐ called “deviant behavior” of a group of Native Americans was extended to explain the “problem behavior” of white, middle‐class, settler youth, before coming to circulate as a universal theory of adolescent behavior. Second, it explores how a theory that was meant to explain individual behaviors by connecting them to their larger social contexts came to be embraced by researchers who have been criticized for doing precisely the opposite. To do so,
this article draws from Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies scholarship and sheds light on how the logics of settler colonialism and neoliberalism have participated in the coproduction of PBT and its reception.


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Unsettled and unsettling settlers: Manal Shqair, ‘Israeli Shepherd Settlements – Ecological Colonialism in the Jordan Valley’, Transactions of the Jewish National Fund, 2, 2022

13Aug22

Abstract: In this paper, I examine how Israeli shepherd settlement outposts accompanied by other impositions act to decimate Palestinians’ land-based pastoralism in the Jordan Valley, and represent a deliberate mechanism of the Zionist state to disrupt indigenous eco-social practices. Focusing on the communities of Khirbet AlHadidya, Khirbet Makhoul and Al-Farisya, I find that the Israeli destruction of Palestinians’ eco-social relations falls with the framework of colonial ecological violence (CEV) described by Jules M. Bacon. CEV works slowly and strategically to advance the settler-colonial project, perpetually undermining the agricultural livelihood and social resilience of the indigenous population.


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Settling on time: Isaac White, Heather Castleden, ‘Time as an instrument of settler evasion: Circumventing the implementation of truth and reconciliation in Canadian geography departments’, The Canadian Geographer, 2022

13Aug22

Abstract: In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released its final report on the Indian Residential Schools system and issued 94 calls to action. Education was identified as core to the reconciliation process. Universities across the country responded swiftly, acknowledging the calls as urgent and long overdue. Institution‐wide task forces were established, and glossy reports were produced with directives to faculties and departments. Given Geography’s historic and ongoing implication in white settler colonialism, Geography departments were in unique positions to surface the truths, engage in healing, and reconcile their relationships to Indigenous Peoples and the Land. This paper presents findings from an exploratory case study that sought to understand precisely what Canadian Geography departments have been doing to operationalize the TRC’s calls to action in the five years since the TRC report was released. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis of semi‐structured interviews with Geography department heads, we show how settler‐colonial space‐ time geographies were often used as a scapegoat to circumvent responsibility at the department level. We are calling on Geography departments to take time away from their standing state of affairs to strategically, structurally, and systematically operationalize the calls to action.


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A new introduction: Sai Englert, Settler Colonialism: An Introduction, Pluto Press, 2022

13Aug22

Description: From the Palestinian struggle against Israeli Apartheid, to First Nations’ mass campaigns against pipeline construction in North America, Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of some of the crucial struggles of our age. Rich with their unique histories, characteristics, and social relations, they are connected by the shared enemy they face: settler colonialism. In this introduction, Sai Englert highlights the ways in which it has, and continues to shape our global economic and political order. From the rapacious accumulation of resources, land, and labour, through Indigenous dispossession and genocide, to the development of racism as a form of social control, settler colonialism is deeply connected to many of the social ills we continue to face today. To understand settler colonialism as an ongoing process, is therefore also to start engaging with contemporary social movements and solidarity campaigns differently. It is to start seeing how distinct struggles for justice and liberation are intertwined.


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The refugee faces the settler: Yen Le Espiritu, Lan Duong, Ma Vang, Victor Bascara, Khatharya Um, Lila Sharif, Nigel Hatton, Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies, University of California Press, 2022

11Aug22

Description: Departures supports, contextualizes, and advances the field of critical refugee studies by providing a capacious account of its genealogy, methods, and key concepts as well as its premises, priorities, and possibilities. The book outlines the field’s main tenets, questions, and concerns and offers new approaches that integrate theoretical rigor and policy considerations with refugees’ rich and complicated lived worlds. It also provides examples of how to link communities, movements, networks, artists, and academic institutions and forge new and humane reciprocal paradigms, dialogues, visuals, and technologies that replace and reverse the dehumanization of refugees that occurs within imperialist gazes and frames, sensational stories, savior narratives, big data, colorful mapping, and spectator scholarship. This resource and guide is for all readers invested in addressing the concerns, perspectives, knowledge production, and global imaginings of refugees.


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Settlers of colour in Israel: Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, ‘The Ethiopian Jews in Israel’, in Guy Ben-Porat, Yariv Feniger, Dani Filc, Paula Kabalo, Julia Mirsky (eds), Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Israel, 2022

11Aug22

Abstract: This chapter analyzes the status of the Ethiopian Jews community in Israel. Racism has been a core element in the treatment of Zionism and the State of Israel toward Ethiopian Jews, starting from pre-immigration to present days. Their trapped status as immigrants who fall between Zionism and the settler colonial state is brought to the forefront of the analysis; on the one hand, they are often treated as “settlers of color,” passive pawns brought to Israel as part of Judaizing Palestine/Israel to restrain the demographic balance and the increasing of the Arab body. On the other, the Zionist-Israeli perspective treats them from an orientalist’s mindset. This outlook is manifested in various fields such as the hesitant immigration policies, questioning their Jewish-religious roots, and the daily racism they experience in the fields of housing, education, employment and more. The last part engages with the mechanisms they have developed to cope with racism, mostly by alienating themselves from Israeli identity and identifying with global black identity through cultural and artistic means.


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The settler colonial pandemic: Nicholas D. Spence, Fatih Sekercioglu (eds), Indigenous Health and Well-Being in the COVID-19 Pandemic, Routledge, 2022

11Aug22

Description: This book investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and assesses the policy responses taken by governments and Indigenous communities across the world. Bringing together innovative research and policy insights from a range of disciplines, this book investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples across the world, with coverage of　North America, Central America, Africa, and Oceania. Further, it explores the actions taken by governments and Indigenous communities in addressing the challenges posed by this public health crisis. The book emphasises the social determinants of health and well-being, reflecting on issues such as self-governance, human rights law, housing, socioeconomic conditions, access to health care, culture, environmental deprivation, and resource extraction. Chapters also highlight the resilience and agency of Indigenous Peoples in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the legacy of colonialism, patterns of systemic discrimination, and social exclusion. Providing concrete pathways for improving the conditions of Indigenous Peoples in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is essential reading for researchers across indigenous studies, public health, and social policy.


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The intimate violence of settler colonialism: Maia C. Behrendt, ‘Settler colonial origins of intimate partner violence in Indigenous communities’, Sociology Compass, 2022

11Aug22

Abstract: Indigenous women in the United States experience disproportionately higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Through a framework of settler colonialism, this article examines how settler colonial gender practices disrupted and eroded generational patterns of gender roles and power relationships within Indigenous communities, contributing over time to today’s higher levels of IPV perpetrated against Indigenous women. I argue that future research on IPV must attend to the historical, contemporary, and legal impacts of settler colonial policies and laws that contribute to increased rates of violence within marginalized and racialized communities. In this article, I first review dominant theories of IPV, then review how a theoretical framework of settler colonialism expands our understanding of IPV in Indigenous communities, and, finally, address the impacts of federal policies on Indigenous sovereign rights regarding violence against women.


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The actual structures of settler colonialism: Rebecca Weaver-Hightower, Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower, ‘South Africa’s Voortrekker Monument and 1820 Settlers National Monument: Monuments to Cultural Violence’, Journal of Genocide Research, 2022

09Aug22

Abstract: This article compares two South African monument spaces, the well-known Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria and the lesser-known 1820 Settlers National Monument in Makandha (formerly Grahamstown). While ultimately both monuments enact cultural violence through the veneration of European settler groups, they do so in contrasting ways, which may make a difference in ultimately mitigating their cultural violence. While the Voortrekker Monument presents an explicit narrative of Afrikaner supremacy literally carved in marble, the 1820 Settlers National Monument features more abstract symbolism and its leaders have long shown willingness to alter and use the monument in ways that interrupt (at least somewhat) the adulation of settler culture. Comparison of the sites, though, show that the ambivalence of the 1820 Settlers Monument may not be enough to remove the cultural violence done by such monuments.


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Gaming the settler Trail: William J. Bauer, Jr., Margaret Huettl, Katrina M. Phillips, ‘Retracing The Oregon Trail’, California History, 99, 3, 2022, pp. 53-63

09Aug22

Abstract: The video game The Oregon Trail occupies a cornerstone in American popular culture. Released in 1971, the game came bundled with Apple II computers and, between the 1970s and 1990s, fostered computer education. In the original version of the game, players led a wagon train from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, attempting to overcome numerous obstacles. However, the game glorified settler colonialism and erased Indigenous peoples. In 2020, Gameloft decided to rebuild the game, and the company hired three Native studies scholars to “bring a new level of respectful representation to the game.” Here, we reflect on our role as consultants in the game’s redevelopment, asking what it means to integrate Indigenous perspectives and presence into popular, contested narratives of the American West in educational and entertainment contexts.


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