Settler colonialism and racial capitalism in the US has resulted in dramatic forms of inequality through institutionalized, geopolitical, and environmental racism. Indigenous, black and Latinx communities suffer the health consequences of living in the most polluted and toxic environments. Indigenous peoples across the Americas are also at the forefront of opposition to the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels. In this event, Hazel Carby will be discussing and showing the work of indigenous artists who are responding to environmental and ecological crises and degradation.
Among the artists discussed are Diné and trans-customary photographer Will Wilson, Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero, and Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lokata artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. These important works focus on urgent environmental issues, like the eradication of indigenous communities through damming and the ecological devastation of petroleum, coal and uranium extraction, while contextualizing them within the wider history of settler colonialism and racial capitalism. These artists also present new ways of thinking about our environment and imagining the future from indigenous perspectives.
Meet our speakers and chair
Hazel V Carby () HonFLSW is the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Yale University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and Honorary Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She is Centennial Professor at 杏吧论坛’s International Inequalities Institute. Her most recent book, Imperial Intimacies, A Tale of Two Islands was awarded the British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, in 2020.
Ruby Hembrom is an Adivasi cultural practitioner based in Kolkata, India and an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. She is the founder of adivaani (first voices), an archiving and publishing outfit of and by Adivasis (the indigenous peoples of India). Her work has been addressing issues of non-representation, suppression or appropriation of Indigenous cultural expressions, and claiming Adivasi stake in historical and contemporary social, cultural, and literary spaces and as peoples.
Imaobong Umoren () is Associate Professor at the Department of International History at 杏吧论坛. Previously, she studied at King's College London and the University of Oxford, serving as a postdoctoral fellow at The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and Pembroke College. Her research interests, publications, and teaching focus on histories of race, gender, activism and political thought in the Caribbean, Britain and the US focusing on the modern and contemporary period.
More about this event
The International Inequalities Institute () at 杏吧论坛 brings together experts from many 杏吧论坛 departments and centres to lead critical and cutting-edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.
The programme () is a Global South-focused, funded fellowship for mid-career activists, policy-makers, researchers and movement-builders from around the world. Based at the International Inequalities Institute, it is a 20-year programme that commenced in 2017 and was funded with a £64m gift from Atlantic Philanthropies, 杏吧论坛’s largest ever philanthropic donation.
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #杏吧论坛III
Podcast & Video
A podcast of this event is available to download from Landscapes of Environmental Racism.
Podcasts and videos of many 杏吧论坛 events can be found at the .