settler colonial studies blog

Lost Norse settlements in America: Gordon Campbell, Norse America: The Story of a Founding Myth, Oxford University Press, 2021

27Jun25

Description: The story of the Vikings in North America as both fact and fiction, from the westward expansion of the Norse across the North Atlantic in the tenth and eleventh centuries to the myths and fabrications about their presence there that have developed in recent centuries. Tracking the saga of the Norse across the North Atlantic to America, Norse America sets the record straight about the idea that the Vikings ‘discovered’ America. The journey described is a continuum, with evidence-based history and archaeology at one end, and fake history and outright fraud at the other. In between there lies a huge expanse of uncertainty: sagas that may contain shards of truth, characters that may be partly historical, real archaeology that may be interpreted through the fictions of saga, and fragmentary evidence open to responsible and irresponsible interpretation. Norse America is a book that tells two stories. The first is the westward expansion of the Norse across the North Atlantic in the tenth and eleventh centuries, settling in Greenland and establishing a shore station at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland (to which a chapter of the book is devoted) and ending (but not culminating) in a fleeting and ill-documented presence on the shores of the North American mainland. The second is the appropriation and enhancement of the westward narrative by Canadians and Americans who want America to have had white North European origins, who therefore want the Vikings to have ‘discovered’ America, and who in the advancement of that thesis have been willing to twist and manufacture evidence in support of claims grounded in an ideology of racial superiority.

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Lost Estonian settlements in the Caucasus: Aivar Jürgenson, ‘The National Epic as a Source of Place Names: The Toponymy of Estonian Settlements on the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus’, Philological Researches, 2025

27Jun25

Abstract: The article examines changes in place names in areas along the Black Sea coast of the
Caucasus where Estonian settlers were relocated in the 1880s. Following the conquest of the Black Sea
coast, Tsarist authorities sought to assert their power by introducing new place names, thereby
inscribing their ideology onto the foreign territory. The names assigned by the authorities typically
reflected the names of “heroes” of the Caucasian War, high-ranking representatives of the Russian
administration, or members of the Tsar’s family. However, the authorities also allowed settlers
significant freedom in naming their new settlements. Although the settlers’ chosen names did not reflect
the colonial ideology of the Russian Empire, the names were influenced by the prevailing ideology in
the settlers’ homeland. For Estonians, this was national romanticism, which drew inspiration in part
from Estonian mythology. The article explores which mythological figures were used in the names of
Estonian settlements in the Caucasus and the purposes behind such naming. It also investigates the
motivations behind the creation of local microtoponyms.

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Parallel settlements: A. Moaswes, Interconnections Across Palestine and Kashmir: The Politics and Economy of Indian-Israeli Settler Colonialism, PhD dissertation, University of Exeter, 2025

27Jun25

Abstract: The strengthening of political and economic ties between Israel and India in recent decades has prompted the emergence of a body of academic and activist literature that has placed Israel’s violence against Palestinians and India’s against Kashmiris in a comparative and analogical frames. Taking the relationship beyond that of analogy and comparison, this study seeks to explore the dynamics behind how the development of interconnections between Israeli and Indian settler colonialism in Palestine and Kashmir play into their mutual reinforcement. Viewing these interconnections as existing beyond the scope of Indian-Israeli diplomatic ties, but rather as parts of wider networks of relationships that weave settler colonial processes into the fabric of global political and economic flows, this project therefore prompts the question of what these interconnections reveal about world capitalism in the current century. In addition to examining the global role of interconnections between two of the longest running cases of colonialism instigated during the supposed era of global decolonisation, this study’s specific focus on Israeli settler colonialism’s relationship with that of India spotlights a key blind spot of much postcolonial literature, which fails to address the phenomenon of postcolonial states enacting forms of colonialism and its role in contemporary worldmaking. By examining the relationship between the cases of settler colonialism at the centre of this study in a way that contextualises their existence within the common terrain of global neoliberal capitalism, this study reveals how cross-colonisation entrenches settler colonial processes deeply into said terrain. To do this, I first establish how both India and Israel discretely entrench their respective settler colonisations of Palestine and Kashmir into the flows of world capitalism. I then outline the dynamics that draw the two cases into contact with one another. I use this as a base to analyse the political economy of Indian-Israeli cross colonial interconnections in Kashmir and Palestine – an economic relationship that is reinforced by the economic interests of other global and regional powers in the continued colonisation of Palestine and Kashmir. After this, I analyse the role of universalist vocabularies and narrative assemblages in embedding the economic cross-colonial linkages into global political flows, focusing on those of the nation-state system, the global War on Terror, and capitalist rationalism.

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Bombing out: David Lloyd, ‘Israel’s Settler-Colonial Bomb: For Refaat Alareer Available to Purchase’, Social Text, 43, 2, 2025, pp. 1-16

26Jun25

Abstract: Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza has entailed the massive destruction of universities and schools, religious and cultural centers, and other sites critical to the survival and reproduction of Palestinian cultural life. At the same time, the death toll of Palestinian writers and artists, teachers and doctors, journalists and researchers has been exceptionally high. Such a level of destruction and killing continues to be excused by Israel and its supporters as the unfortunate collateral damage of a war against a terrorist organization that conceals itself within civilian spaces. This essay, on the contrary, argues that in light of the longer history of colonialism with which Israel’s settler‐colonial enterprise is continuous, the assault on cultural life should be seen as a systematic element of its overall project, the elimination of the Palestinians as a people. What the Kenyan anticolonial intellectual Ngugi Wa Thiong’o once described as colonialism’s “cultural bomb” aims, alongside more material weaponry, to break the will to resistance of the colonized. It intends the psychological destruction of the population and the eradication not only of armed resistance but also of those whose intellectual, artistic, or literary work contributes to the maintenance of the sense of cultural continuity and futurity on which both armed and unarmed resistance draws. The instance of Refaat Alareer, a scholar, teacher, and poet murdered by Israel in December 2023, is emblematic of the long history of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian cultural figures but also of the persistence and dissemination of their work that defies destruction.

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What is to be done: John Olthuis, On Dismantling Colonialism: An Insider’s Perspective on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, University of Toronto Press, 2025

23Jun25

Description: On Dismantling Colonialism challenges conventional approaches to reconciliation, urging Canadians to move away from the notion of assimilation – where Indigenous peoples are expected to conform to the values and structures of settler colonial society. Instead, this book advocates for a true reconciliation: one that fosters the creation of political, economic, social, and cultural spaces where Indigenous nations can self-govern, restore their traditional lands, and live in harmony with the earth according to their own values and beliefs. Through deeply personal reflections on over five decades of activism in the communities of the Dene Nation, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Temagami First Nation and the Innu Nation of Labrador, John A. Olthuis shares his powerful journey of working to dismantle settler colonialism. He brings to light the many neglected blueprints for true reconciliation, including discussions of over 700 recommendations for systemic change put forth by the Penner Report, The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This book offers a powerful exploration of how the challenging work of dismantling colonialism can be a transformative and deeply healing process for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. On Dismantling Colonialism explores the shift from assimilation to genuine reconciliation, emphasizing the urgent need to create spaces where Indigenous peoples can self-govern, restore their lands, and live according to their own values and traditions.

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Oromo indigeneity against settler colonialism: Muhammad Al-Hashimi, ‘The Indigenous Oromo Nation: Victims of Natural Resource Theft under Abyssinian Imperialism and Colonialism in the Creation of Modern Ethiopia’, Fourth World Journal, 25, 1, 2025, pp. 457-479

23Jun25

Abstract: This paper examines the exploitation of the Indigenous Oromo people’s natural resources without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), beginning with the historical subjection and oppression of the Oromo by imperial and colonial forces. It challenges the prevailing narrative of Ethiopia’s 3,000-year independence by showing that its current geopolitical boundaries—formed no more than 175 years ago—resulted from African imperial expansion. Focusing on the Lega Dembi gold mines in southern Oromia, the analysis demonstrates how successive Ethiopian regimes have violated Gujii Oromo human and Indigenous rights through forced gold and silver extraction, precipitating severe environmental harm. Finally, it argues for the Oromo Nation’s accession to the International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations (ICRIN) and recognition by the Nations Indigenous Court Tribunal (NICT), thereby securing a legal forum to address ongoing FPIC infringements and seek redress for resource-extraction abuses.

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Can genocide be investigated, even if it is slow? Andrew B. Reid, ‘The Slow Genocide of Indigenous Nations and Peoples: Hiding in Plain Sight’, Fourth World Journal, 25, 1, 2025, pp. 247-334

23Jun25

Abstract: British historian Patrick Wolfe opined that settler colonialism is not just an event in history but is structural and, by definition, eliminates to replace over time. Colonial rule and domination often seek the extermination of occupied nations and peoples through forced assimilation and attrition. Despite the fact that colonialism is at its core ethnic cleansing, forced assimilation, and slow genocide, the protracted colonial elimination of original nations and peoples has been largely excluded from the “crime of crimes” by international institutions, the developing law of genocide, and genocide scholars. This article seeks to address that deficiency.

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Settler colonial murder cannot be investigated: Steff King, Ted Palys, annie ross, Gail S. Anderson, ‘Concerns with police practice in investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people in Canada’, Policing and Society, 2025

23Jun25

Abstract: Inadequate death investigations for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in Canada are a growing problem. Despite several government initiatives and specialised police task forces, Indigenous families continue to report that investigators fail to conduct complete investigations into their loved ones’ deaths. At the centre of many of these concerns is the role that police play, or do not play, in fulfilling standard investigative procedures. This paper presents a thematic analysis of concerns made by Indigenous people about MMIP investigations in Canada, including three in-depth case studies from Prince Rupert, B.C. and 53 family testimony transcripts from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls. Three themes on primary investigative concerns in Indigenous cases emerged including (1) police discrepancies and biases at the time of report intake, (2) failures to collect evidence and information during investigations, and (3) lack of officer communication and support for bereaved families. The discussion throughout identifies the role of the police within these investigative concerns and incorporates cautions from academic literature. The study includes both professional and community recommendations for policing institutions to improve future investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people and support the well-being of the bereaved.

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Posthumanist indigenism: Giulia Magro, ‘Reassembling Skins and Bones: Indigeneity and Posthumanism in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms’, in María Ferrández-Sanmiguel, Esther Muñoz-González, Carmen Laguarta-Bueno (eds), The Posthuman Condition in 21st Century Literature and Culture, Palgrave, 2025, pp. 165-184

22Jun25

Abstract: While posthumanism has contributed to questioning the foundations of humanism and the process of exclusion it has engendered of those diverging from the universal category of “Man,” numerous scholars have criticized this theoretical approach from Indigenous perspectives. Critics stress posthumanism’s tendency to appropriate Indigenous epistemes without acknowledging them. It thus runs the risk of becoming complicit with colonial violence. Projects of decolonizing posthumanist scholarship argue for a greater engagement with Indigenous studies, fostering a “multiepistemic literacy” (Kuokkanen, Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes, and the Logic of the Gift. University of British Columbia P, 2007). Acknowledging the productive potential of an alliance between Indigenous and posthumanist discourses in reorienting the conversation toward issues of settler colonialism, land sovereignty, and Indigenous self-determination, this chapter aims to apply a lens attentive to both Indigeneity and posthumanism to Chickasaw author Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms. On the one hand, the chapter will focus on representations of taxidermy, deeply tied to colonial violence, which transforms animals into posthuman commodified objects. On the other hand, it will address instances of reassembling skins and bones in acts of regenerative creation, which, unlike taxidermy, acknowledge the need for processes of relational becoming. These combinations of matter constitute a way of envisioning counter-hegemonic modes of being human, relating to the more-than-human, and affirming Indigenous self-determination.

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Dead settler colonialism: Jae Page, ‘The dead as property marker: A legal geography of the cemetery’, Geoforum, 164, 2025, #104345

22Jun25

Abstract: The marked burial of the dead functions as a proprietary claim to land, and the law has legitimized this relationship since ancient times. Contributing to the literature in legal geography and settler-colonialism, this research provides a much-needed examination of the property relationship between the dead and the land. Through a genealogical analysis of cemetery law in the jurisdiction of Ontario, Canada, this study highlights the many practices and materialities that gave rise to the continued and glorified presence of the dead settler. While Canadian society has become increasingly secularized, cemetery law reveals the privileged status of Christian understandings of sacredness. Through the ‘proper’ burial, the grievable life is revealed, and this undoubtedly reflects the image of the powerful.

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