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On the (settler colonial studies-related) history of historical geography (II): Larry McCann, ‘Coming Ashore: Graeme Wynn and the Canadian Landscape’, Historical Geography, 43, 2015, pp. 188-192

30Dec15

Excerpt: The physical environment, the migration of Europeans overseas, population dynamics, ethnicity, family life, the settlement process, the waxing and waning of regional economies, the politics of dependency, the conservation of the natural environment—these are but a few of the themes that have captured the imagination of an incisive, voracious mind that is always in search of the wider landscape significance of the commonplace, and of everyday occurrences.


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On the (settler colonial studies-related) history of historical geography (I): Jane Carruthers, ‘Graeme Wynn: The Historical Geography of Environment and Empire from the Edges’, Historical Geography, 43, 2015, pp. 181-184

30Dec15

Excerpt: In reflecting on Graeme’s thinking and writing about environment and empire, we are left in no doubt of his conviction that of those human transformations he seeks to understand, the imperial period of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been the most pivotal. The impact of British imperialism captured his imagination in the 1970s when he first set out to examine New Zealand and Australia and, since the 1980s, Canada.


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On the settler colonial politics of a particular region: Jessica R. Cattelino, ‘The cultural politics of water in the Everglades and beyond’, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 5, 3, 2015, pp. 235–250

30Dec15

Excerpt: Since the mid-1800s, Everglades politics have been dominated by three settler imperatives: to make land agriculturally productive; to develop a permanent residential population; and, more recently, to restore the Everglades. Drainage and flood control have allowed major coastal development, cattle ranching, large-scale vegetable production, Florida citrus, and the growth of the sugarcane industry that now dominates Clewiston and surrounding areas. After a half century of efforts to restore the Everglades, it is clear to me that saving the Everglades is as much a social and cultural project as a scientific or political one.


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Studying religious settlers: Assaf Harel, “The eternal nation does not fear a long road”, PhD Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2015

30Dec15

Description: This is an ethnography of Jewish settlers in Israel/Palestine. Studies of religiously motivated settlers in the occupied territories indicate the intricate ties between settlement practices and a Jewish theology about the advent of redemption. This messianic theology binds future redemption with the maintenance of a physical union between Jews and the “Land of Israel.” However, among settlers themselves, the dominance of this messianic theology has been undermined by postmodernity and most notably by a series of Israeli territorial withdrawals that have contradicted the promise of redemption. These days, the religiously motivated settler population is divided among theological and ideological lines that pertain, among others issues, to the meaning of redemption and its relation to the state of Israel. This dissertation begins with an investigation of the impact of the 2005 Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip upon settlers and proceeds to compare three groups of religiously motivated settlers in the West Bank: an elite Religious Zionist settlement, settlers who engage in peacemaking activities with Palestinians, and settlers who act violently against Palestinians. Through a comparison of these different groups, this dissertation demonstrates that while messianism remains a central force in the realities of Jewish settlements and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it exists these days in more diversified forms than before. In addition, this ethnography illustrates how religion both underlies and undermines differences between Israelis and Palestinians and argues that local communities and religious leaders should be included in peace processes. Finally, by examining how messianic conceptions of time among different groups of Jewish settlers connect to their settlement practices, this study reveals the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be as much about time as it is about space. Accordingly, this dissertation has broader implications for understanding the contemporary role of religion and time within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the political struggles of the Middle East.


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On indigenous silences: Timothy J. San Pedro, ‘Silence as Shields: Agency and Resistances among Native American Students in the Urban Southwest’, Research in the Teaching of English, 50, 2, 2015, pp. 132-153

30Dec15

Abstract: This article discusses findings from a three-year ethnographic study of an ethnic studies course called Native American literature, which began during the passing of legislation that banned the teaching of ethnic studies in Arizona’s public and charter schools. The data analyzed here explore the ways students use silence as a form of critical literacy—or critical silent literacies—in response to racial microaggressions enacted by their peers, their teachers, or a combination of both. This framing of silence questions common assumptions that Native American students are silent because of their biological, inherent, and/or cultural “traits.” Challenging such assumptions, Native American students in this study reveal that as they attempt to voice their ideas, they are repeatedly silenced because their knowledges counter the dominant settler knowledges taught in public schools. As a result, they discuss how their silence has been used over time as a resistance strategy to shield themselves, their identities, and their family and community knowledges from dominant, monocultural knowledges with which they did not agree.


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Settler colonialism queers indigenous peoples: Madeleine Clark, ‘Indigenous Subjectivity in Australia: Are we Queer?’, Journal of Global Indigeneity, 1, 1, 2015

30Dec15

Abstract: The introduction of queer theory in Australian Indigenous contexts presents powerful possibilities and challenging complexities; for the building of new histories, the inhabiting of the historical space, the “queering” of ideas of blood, family, community and lineage, and the limits of “being” and “doing” as they relate to bodies and genders. Queer First Nations people in settler-colonial contexts, particularly in Turtle Island, have begun to drawn on Queer theory to extend their understandings of colonialism and Indigenous sexualities. This paper will explore this move towards queer theory and analysis, in particular examining the recent introduction of the “subjectless critique” to Indigenous studies, changing the terms of engagement with colonialist histories and structures to argue that colonialism is a system of normativity which “queers” settlers and Indigenous people alike. The paper will challenge this mode of critique and contextualise it within Australian Indigenous studies, drawing on feminist theory, queer theory, decolonisation theory and critical race studies. It will also explore the politics of naming our experiences and histories as ‘queer’ given the western history and exclusivity of the term and the community surrounding it. This calls into question the politics of reclaimation; of language, history, and embodiment, and demands a reading of Indigenous gender and sexuality under regimes of global colonialism.


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On colonialism without colonies (introdicing a special issue of National Identities): Barbara Lüthi, Francesca Falk, Patricia Purtschert, ‘Colonialism without colonies: examining blank spaces in colonial studies’, National Identities, 18, 1, 2016, pp. 1-9

27Dec15

Access the introduction here.


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Introducing a special issue of Settler Colonial Studies: Eva Bischoff, ‘Experiences, actors, spaces: dimensions of settler colonialism in transnational perspective’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

27Dec15

Access the introduction here.


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On the ethnopolitics of settler projects: Mohamed Adhikari, ‘Invariably genocide? When hunter-gatherers and commercial stock farmers clash’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2015

27Dec15

Abstract: The five century long process of European overseas conquest included many instances of the extermination of Indigenous peoples. Where commercial stock farmers invaded the lands of hunter-gatherers conflict was particularly destructive, often resulting in a degree of dispossession and slaughter that destroyed the ability of these societies to reproduce themselves biologically or culturally. The frequency with which encounters of this kind resulted in the complete, or near complete, annihilation of forager societies raises the question whether this form of colonial conflict was inherently genocidal. The focus of this article is on how the global economic system tended to bring together the practices of metropolitan and colonial governments, the interests of providers of capital and the consumers of commodities, and the agency of local actors ranging from military commanders to graziers in remote outposts in ways that fostered the violent dissolution of native society. It seeks to identify salient shared features in conflicts between hunter-gatherers and market-oriented stock farmers that served to intensify hostilities and tilt the balance toward genocidal outcomes.


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Indigenous sovereignty as a non-territorial project: Torvald Falch, Per Selle, Kristin Strømsnes, ‘The Sámi: 25 Years of Indigenous Authority in Norway’, Ethnopolitics, 15, 1, 2016, pp. 125-143

27Dec15

Abstract: This article explores the case of the Sámi in the Nordic countries, with a specific focus on the most extensive Sámi political system, that found in Norway. The Norwegian Sámi parliament is an indigenous parliament in a unitary and ‘state-friendly’ society. As will be seen, that is not an easy position to be in. While most of the Sámi are concentrated in the most northern part of Norway, the Sámi language has a general protection by law. The language has a particularly strong protection within the so-called management area of the Sámi language (which includes 10 out of 428 Norwegian municipalities). The territorial dimension and the strong emphasis upon the traditional Sámi settlement areas are at the core of the Sámi political project. Even so, the Sámi parliament covers the whole of Norway, and a Sámi can register to vote for the Sámi elections independently of where in Norway that person is living. The Sámi are thus an indigenous people, for whom the development of a new public space since the 1980s has as its core the question of ownership of land and water in the key Sámi areas, while the jurisdiction of the Sámi parliament extends not only over the traditional Sámi areas, but also over the whole territory of Norway. The article discusses how this non-territorial model came about and what it implies for the Sámi political project. What kind of boundaries or limits concerning Sámi self-determination and self-rule do we see after 25 years of a Sámi Parliament?


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