Deadline to send an abstract and a mini-biography: June 1, 2024

Deadline to send the full article: July 20, 2024

            Textures (LCE Research Laboratory, Lumière Lyon 2 University) is preparing a special issue to examine literary and artistic representations of ecocides in settler colonies. Destabilizing the traditional settler colonial narrative, opposing white settlers to Indigenous peoples, articles will interrogate how the overexploitation of natural resources and the destruction of endogenous fauna and flora are perceived by the various communities who co-exist in settler colonies, whether they are Indigenous peoples, white settlers, non-white settlers, migrants, or political and environmental refugees. Too often, ecocides are framed in the ‘dying’ discourse settler colonialism itself constructs to justify inaction, exactions, and overexploitation of local natural and human resources. Sometimes, the national narrative denies them altogether, as in Aotearoa New Zealand which continues to herald its “100% Pure” myth despite the fragility of many endogenous species, massive agricultural production, and the growing number of endangered endemic plants.

Ecocides are ecological genocides whose narratives can be analysed from various standpoints, such as environmental humanities, trauma studies, disaster studies, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and Indigenous studies. Grace Dillon (Anishinaabe) refers to settler colonialism as a “Post-Native Apocalypse World”, a concept which is pertinent for this special issue as Indigenous epistemologies promoting a form of symbiosis between humans and the land have persisted over the years despite massive land confiscation, the loss of sovereignty, a long process of assimilation, and genocides. In this context, the roles women and girls from various communities have in settler colonies to preserve local fauna and flora can be analysed from ecofeminist and mana wāhine perspectives.  

            Articles dealing with the following topics are welcome (although other topics can be developed as well):

• Literary genres as modus operandi to address ecological traumas
• Mana wāhine and Indigenous responses to climate change
• Practical, communal, caring, and culturally sensitive projects preserving endogenous species and abiding by Indigenous sovereignty
• ‘Dying’ peoples, ‘dying’ languages, ‘dying’ fauna, ‘dying’ flora: putting an end to the colonial ‘dying’ discourse
• Narrating strategies to express the ecological crisis, especially its specific timeframe and urgency
• Settler colonial ignorance and the exploitation of Indigenous land
• Dialogues between various viewpoints, including too often marginalised voices (women, LGBTQIA+ people, Indigenous peoples, non-whites, migrants, refugees)
• Whitewashing and greenwashing readings of settler colonial history
• Indigenous stories of the Creation, survivance, and resistance
• Western science and technologies: eco-friendly solutions or neo-colonial tools?
• Dis-ease: te whare tapa whā, mahi a atua, and other holistic approaches to heal Indigenous intergenerational trauma

To participate, submit your 250-300 word abstract along with a mini-biography to Marine Berthiot (mcberthiot.recherche@proton.me) and Alvar De La Llosa (Alvar.DeLaLlosa@univ-lyon2.fr) by June 1, 2024. You will receive an email notification when your project is accepted by June 10, 2024. Your full article (30,000-40,000 characters, including spaces) will be due on July 20, 2024.