“Decolonial ecology is a centuries-old cry for justice and an appeal for a world”  Malcolm Ferdinand

This year’s ASCA Political Ecologies seminar is dedicated to a careful reading of Malcolm Ferdinand’s recent Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World. Our discussion will consider the contribution this book makes to the larger field of environmental and political philosophy and what its argument might mean for how the western university currently takes on questions of ecology, sustainability, and justice. A number of the five seminars will be facilitated by guest speakers. 

Book description: The world is in the midst of a storm that has shaped the history of modernity along a double fracture: on the one hand, an environmental fracture driven by a technocratic and capitalist civilization that led to the ongoing devastation of the Earth’s ecosystems and its human and non-human communities and, on the other, a colonial fracture instilled by Western colonization and imperialism that resulted in racial slavery and the domination of indigenous peoples and women in particular. In this important new book, Malcom Ferdinand challenges this double fracture, thinking from the Caribbean world. Here, the slave ship reveals the inequalities that continue during the storm: some are shackled inside the hold and even thrown overboard at the first gusts of wind. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work in the Caribbean, Ferdinand conceptualizes a decolonial ecology that holds protecting the environment together with the political struggles against (post)colonial domination, structural racism, and misogynistic practices.

The seminar will be of interest to students and scholars in environmental humanities and Latin American and Caribbean studies, as well as anyone interested in ecology, slavery, and (de)colonization. Session 1 of 5 of this year’s seminar is focused on Part 1 of the text. Participants are expected to have read this section in advance of the meeting. 

Session 3 of 5 of this year’s seminar is focused on Part 3 of the text. Participants are expected to have read this section in advance of the meeting. 

All are welcome. For further information and to become a member of the working group contact us via elena.menendez@student.uva.nl. rMA credit available for those seeking tutorials. 

ASCA Political Ecologies Group is organised by Jeff Diamanti, Joost du Blois, and Elena Menendez.