Anthropocene as Kleptocene: Colonial Theft, Ecological Destruction, Indigenous Activism
Description
In this episode, LAC member Müge Gedik has a conversation with Kyle Keeler on the colonial roots of our current epoch, popularly referred to as “the Anthropocene.” Keeler highlights the history of centuries of violent colonialism that would set in motion the industrial production, chemicals, and bomb blasts that are argued to distinguish the Anthropocene from previous epochs. Focusing on violent colonial theft, Keeler changes the name of this epoch to the Kleptocene, to call attention to to the theft of land, lives (both human and nonhuman), and materials that colonialism broadly, but U.S. settler colonialism specifically, imposed and imposes on North America and its Indigenous inhabitants, as a way to understand global environmental catastrophes. This episode foregrounds indigenous resistance that has been ongoing in this process of theft and extraction. Keeler situates his research on the Kleptocene as a way to imagine, decolonize, and create a future free of colonial theft and ecological destruction on repatriated land.
A special episode featuring LAC's April 2022 roundtable event (Co)Figurations of Care: Experience and Infrastructure in the Medical Humanities, featuring Anna Ulrikke Andersen, MK Czerwiec, and Victoria Lupascu. This roundtable discussed care and its multiple and diverse configurations. Care...
Published 04/22/22
A special episode featuring LAC's March 2022 roundtable event (Co)Figurations of Experience: Ecocritical Approaches to Virtual Worlds, featuring Alenda Y. Chang, Jonathan Correa, Kathryn Hamilton (a.k.a. Sister Sylvester), and Deniz Tortum. This roundtable explored the ecocritical dimensions of...
Published 04/15/22