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Introducing a special issue of Settler Colonial Studies: Karl Jacoby, Magdalena Naum,’Introduction: new voices in settler colonial studies in a time of crisis’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025

20Apr25

Excerpt: In late November of 2024, just as this special issue was being edited, the then-President of the United States, Joe Biden, created a stir when he was spotted leaving a bookstore on Nantucket clutching a copy of the Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi’s 2017 monograph, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. The subtitle of Khalidi’s book, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, encapsulated the work’s central theme: the efforts of Zionists to create a homeland in Palestine needs to be understood as a settler colonial project, in which Jews sought to replace the region’s Indigenous population and claim Palestinian lands as their own. ‘[R]adical social engineering at the expense of the indigenous population is the way of all settler colonial movements’, writes Khalidi. ‘In Palestine, it was a necessary precondition for transforming most of an overwhelmingly Arab country into a predominantly Jewish settler state’. Biden’s apparent interest in Khalidi’s work (which came ‘4 years too late’, according to the The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine’s author) speaks volumes as to the sudden and unprecedented entrance of Settler Colonial Studies into contemporary political debates. Hamas’s massacre of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s on-going response, which Amnesty International and others have labeled genocidal, has focused intense attention on whether Israel should be labeled a settler colonial state as well as on the relationship between settler colonialism and various forms of violence, up to and including genocide. Perhaps not surprisingly, those who seek to defend Israel’s behavior have adopted the tactic of issuing blanket dismissals of Settler Colonial Studies, designed to discredit the field in general and its application to Israel/Palestine in particular. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens labeled settler colonialism a ‘fatally flawed … academic theory’. Adam Kirsch, an editor at the Wall Street Journal, composed an essay entitled ‘The False Narrative of Settler Colonialism’ for The Atlantic. He subsequently expanded his article into a short book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, Justice, in which he claimed that settler colonial theory ‘offers a distorted account of history’, designed ‘to divide the world into the guilty and the innocent’. Not long afterwards, David Frum, a former speech-writer for George W. Bush–perhaps best known for coining the phrase ‘the axis of evil’ to describe Iraq, Iran, and North Korea–published his own article in The Atlantic decrying the concept of settler colonialism as ‘guilty history’ that offered little more than a sneering ‘condemnation of the new societies’ European colonialism created.


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Demography and settler colonialism in French Algeria: Nacer Boukrou, ‘Demographic Transformations and Settlement Policies in Algeria During the French Colonial Period’, The Arabic Journal of Human and Social Sciences,17, 2, 2025, pp. 265-275

20Apr25

Abstract: This research addresses the demographic transformations in Algeria during the
French colonial period (1830-1962) and the impact of settlement policies and forced
migration on the social and cultural fabric of the country. The study relies on historical
and social analysis of various references and demographic and statistical data, as well as
testimonies and historical memories. The research highlights the long-term economic,
social, and cultural impacts of these policies and the reshaping of Algerian national
identity as a result of these changes.


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The settler riviera: Khaldun Bshara, ‘Settler Colonialism Rebranded: Trump’s Gaza Plan and the Capitalist Logic of War’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 2025

20Apr25

Abstract: This essay explores Donald Trump’s proposal to “own Gaza” and develop it into a  “riviera”  that would draw  “people from all over the world.”  The author argues that it aligns with Trump’s broader expansionist ideology and reflects a continuation of the US’s imperial legacy. Through a comparison between the destruction of Gaza and that of Dresden (Germany), and between the proposal to take over Gaza and the US acquisition of Hawaii, the author examines Trump’s plan for Gaza—a real-estate project intertwined with urban renewal and postwar reconstruction that recycle capital surpluses to create new spaces to attract developers and investors—as settler colonialism rebranded. He ends by coining the concept of  “the right to the full Dresdenization” of Gaza as a way to secure for Palestinians a just and comprehensive recovery process that allows them to rebuild their lives and reclaim their space in the aftermath of catastrophic devastation.


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Settler linguistic relativity: Robert Edwards, Linguistic Relativity: Anthropology, U.S. Settler Colonialism, and Native Modernity, PD dissertation, UC Sand Diego, 2025

18Apr25

Abstract: This dissertation examines the colonial history of anthropology. Specifically, I examine the history of an anthropological theory known as linguistic relativity. The theory posited that the unconscious structure of language was linked to patterns of thought and culture, creating distinct worldviews among different language communities. With intellectual roots dating back to the Enlightenment, linguistic relativity developed into a modern science in the United States in the early-twentieth century. My study focuses on how this iteration of the theory was linked to settler-colonial institutions and state power. I also focus on the subaltern experience of North American Indigenous communities impacted by this history of anthropology. On this front, I emphasize the politics of the American Indian self-determination movement. By bringing the history of anthropology, U.S. empire, and American Indian politics into a unified historical narrative, my project reveals a nuanced story about the history of science. My thesis is that, in the United States, the theory of linguistic relativity was instrumentalized in the political project of settler colonialism.


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The future of settler futurity: Cyanne So-lo-li Topaum, ‘Terminal Futurity and Native Ressentiment in the Indigenous Post-Apocalypse’, Orbit, 2025

18Apr25

Abstract: Indigenous post-apocalyptic fiction projects an Indigenous presence into future spaces, attesting to the endurance and survivance of Indigenous peoples and thereby challenging settler myths of erasure. The Indigenous post-apocalypse foregrounds continuity by focusing on how the violences of the future mirror the violences inflicted by settler colonialism in the past and present. In Cherie Dimaline’s Marrow Thieves series and Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon novels, communities of Indigenous survivors are depicted amidst the violence and hostility of the post-apocalyptic landscape. Both authors, as well as other post-apocalyptic writers such as Gerald Vizenor and Stephen Graham Jones, depict the threats to Indigenous characters as not simply external, however, but internal as well. Not all Indigenous characters in the post-apocalypse are able to resist a colonized identity, with some going so far as to privilege settler futurities over Indigenous ones. Instead of Indigenous futurity, these characters embrace colonized futurities, visions of the future that render it as a dead-end, as trapped in what Jones refers to as the “End of the Trail mode.” The means of refuting this type of futurity consist of resisting the settler imaginary’s constructions of Indigeneity, but also in pushing back against Native ressentiment. In this case, ressentiment signifies Indigenous identities formulated as a reaction to settler colonialism, a negative rather than affirmative conception of self. Each of these texts creates future spaces in which Indigenous characters are empowered with agency to refuse terminal futurity’s vision of ressentiment, with some characters fighting to build a communal and resurgent future while others are unable to escape settler colonialism’s pull. In this way, these texts serve as a cautionary tale for Indigenous readers: to survive in the future means actively combatting terminal ideologies which seek to keep Indigenous futurity tethered to a colonial past.


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Property is not sovereignty; Indigenous peoples need sovereignty: Carla D. Pratt, ‘Indianness as Property’, Boston University Law Review, 105, 2025, pp. 311-369

15Apr25

Abstract: This Article expands upon the seminal work by Cheryl Harris entitled Whiteness as Property by exploring the intersection of race and property through Indianness. Indianness has been constructed as a form of property conferring rights and privileges to its holders which this Article examines through the inertial relationship between race and legal status. Tracing the historical evolution of Indianness from the slavery era to the modern era demonstrates the complex relationship between tribal sovereignty, citizenship and Indian identity. This legal history contextualizes contemporary disputes over who can enjoy tribal citizenship and be Indian. This Article advocates for a reevaluation of Indianness that it is not grounded in notions of race and property, but rather sovereignty, history and culture, asserting that broadening the conception of Indianness will strengthen tribal sovereignty.


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Health is sovereignty; Indigenous people need health: Joseph Leblanc, Frances Wesley, George Drazenovich, Paul Capon, Jacinta Oyella, Rachel Rainville, ‘Advancing culturally competent medical education: decolonizing approaches to indigenous health as a human rights imperative’, Critical Public Health, 35, 1, 2025, #2489466

15Apr25

Abstract: This paper advances decolonization within medical education, contextualized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). We discuss, describe, and analyze the history of settler colonialism and its relevance for healthcare and education today. We analyze how Indigeneity is interpreted in an international context based on the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. We situate the current health context in medical education based on data from global sources and the World Health Assembly’s advocacy for advancing Indigenous health equity internationally. As each university is responsible for engaging meaningfully with the First Nations upon whose traditional lands they occupy and using a case-based example of a university–tribal authority partnership, we describe models of culturally informed and community-driven medical education based on our experience. We conclude with promising directions grounded in international Indigenous human rights documents, such as the UNDRIP, and reconciliation efforts from national medical associations that can drive local practice in meaningful directions. We emphasize the need to continue to share experiences through international journals, conferences, and other venues; collaborate on research initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes for Indigenous peoples worldwide and locally; and promote culturally competent education.


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Transnational indigeneities and their struggles against settler colonialism: Ciaran O’Neill, ‘Complex solidarities: the public history of Irish and Native American allyship’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025

14Apr25

Abstract: Since 2020, Irish people have donated over $2.5 million to a relief fund supporting residents of the Navajo and Hopi reservations in northeastern Arizona. Many donors believed their contributions helped `repay a debt’ owed by the Irish to Native Americans—specifically, the Choctaw Nation, which sent aid to Ireland during the 1847 Famine. This article examines how Irish people understand their historical links to settler colonialism and how valid or common it is for them to express solidarity with other colonized peoples, particularly Indigenous groups. Focusing on the relationship between the Irish and Native Americans, especially the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma since the 1990s, the article explores this expression of solidarity. It considers the historical rationale offered by Irish donors to the Navajo and Hopi between 2020 and 2024 via GoFundMe, framing it as repayment for the Choctaw’s 1847 gift. Using Charles Mills’ concept of white ignorance, the article critiques how these acts of solidarity can obscure Ireland’s own role in settler colonialism—from treaty negotiations that displaced Indigenous peoples to participation in land dispossession. By selectively remembering shared suffering while ignoring complicity in colonialism, Irish narratives reveal a more complex and sometimes problematic form of solidarity.


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The discovery of the settler colonial imaginary: heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, Afterlives of Discovery: Speculative Geographies in the Settler Colonial Imaginary, Duke University Press, 2025

14Apr25

Description: In Afterlives of Discovery, heidi andrea restrepo rhodes traces global and national histories as they entangle through the concept and material life of Discovery across Colombia’s evolution into a liberal settler colonial state. Rather than seeing Discovery as a singular event or bygone era, rhodes theorizes Discovery as a globally encompassing, racialized formation of domination and geographic speculation that continues to structure settler colonialism. Discovery’s logics, they argue, are rooted in colonial and capitalist fantasies projected onto the racialized space and place of the colonized other. rhodes draws on critical theory, human rights research, and Colombian archives to challenge dominant narratives that maintain the Colombian armed conflict began as a Marxist insurgency in 1964. Instead, rhodes shows that the conflict is an extension of Discovery’s ongoingness via projects of dispossession, extraction, whitening, and epistemic and political hegemony. Given that Colombia’s national past, present, and future are grounded in Discovery, rhodes asks: How is it possible to build futures that escape Discovery’s grasp?


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The labour of undoing settler colonialism: Shona N. Jackson, Beyond Constraint: Middle/Passages of Blackness and Indigeneity in the Radical Tradition, Duke University Press, 2024

13Apr25

Description: In Beyond Constraint, Shona N. Jackson offers a new approach to labour and its analysis by demonstrating the fundamental relation between black and Indigenous People’s sovereign, free, and coerced labour in the Americas. Through the writings of Cedric Robinson, Walter Rodney, C. L. R. James, and Sylvia Wynter, Jackson confronts the elision of Indigenous People’s labour in the black radical tradition. She argues that this elision is an effect of the structural relation of antiblackness to anti-indigeneity through which native and black bodies are arranged on either side of a split between unproductive labour and productive work necessary for capital accumulation and for how we read capital in political economic critique. This division between labour and work forces the radical tradition to sustain the break between black and Indigenous peoples as part of its critical strategies of liberation. To address this impasse, Jackson reads the tradition against the grain for openings to indigeneity and a method for recovering lost labours.


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