David Vazquez
“Decolonial Environmentalisms: Race, Genre, and Latinx Culture,” Latinx Studies Seed Grant
| February 20, 2020 | ||
| 3:30 pm |
EMU 119
Speaker: David J. Vázquez, UO Associate Professor and Head of Department of English
The environmental humanities explore relationships between literature, culture, and the environment with the goal of creating an earth-centered scholarly vision. Although this body of scholarship centers environmental concerns, some forms of U.S. environmentalism put ideologies of American exceptionalism to work for the movement’s political goals of, as Rob Nixon puts it, “wilderness preservation, on wielding the Endangered Species Act against developers, and on saving old-growth forests.” Although the social justice turn of the environmental humanities has integrated Environmental Justice (or EJ, the study of the uneven distribution of environmental harms and benefits to people of color and the poor) approaches, some pockets of environmental thought continue to emphasize first-world, privileged perspectives over those of people of color, indigenous people, the economically disempowered, the colonized, and the formerly colonized.
“Decolonial Environmentalisms: Race, Genre and Latinx Culture,” intervenes in these trends by identifying parallel and countervailing environmental representations in contemporary Latinx literature and culture that intertwine decolonial and anti-racist forms of thought with environmental imaginaries. Building on the work of environmental humanities scholars who point to privileged perspectives in environmental thought, this project identifies Latinx literary and cultural texts that express neglected environmental perspectives, often through innovative aesthetic forms. These literary texts and cultural productions question stylized pastoral visions of agriculture and speak powerfully to EJ frameworks. The presentation will conclude with a close reading of Alex Rivera’s 2009 film Sleep Dealer as a case study for how decolonial environmentalisms operate in Latinx culture.
David J. Vázquez is Associate Professor and Head of English and a contributing faculty member in the Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies Department and the Program in Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. He is the author of Triangulations: Narrative Strategies for Navigating Latino Identity (Minnesota 2011) and co-editor of Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial (forthcoming Temple). His articles appear in such journals as Arizona Quarterly, Symbolism, Contemporary Literature, CENTRO and Latino Studies. He has also contributed to the Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature and Erasing Public Memory: Race, Aesthetics, and Cultural Amnesia in the Americas.
Latinx Environmentalisms Book Party
| November 21, 2019 | ||
| 4:00 pm | to | 5:30 pm |
Save the Date: Latinx Environmentalisms Book Party 11/21 4:00-5:30
We are delighted to invite you to a book party celebration and talk with the co-editors for Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial on November 21, 2019 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in the EMU Maple Room. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Please share widely with colleagues, students, and friends.
We hope that you will be able to join us for this wonderful event!
All the best,
David Vázquez and Sarah Wald
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