Race, Colonialism, and Climate Justice in the Caribbean

Caribbean nations and territories remain on the frontlines of climate change despite being minor contributors to global warming. How has the history of environmental racism, colonialism, and environmental justice movements shaped our understanding of blackness and the environment in the Caribbean archipelago? In the face of the climate crisis, this course examines the role that (neo)coloniality plays in constructing precarious subjectivities. Environmental disasters namely, the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Dominica, and the 2019 Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas breathe new life into fervent conversations about precarity, dependency, disaster capitalism, anti-Blackness, colonial oversight, neoliberalism, and debt. Students will participate in these critical conversations and gain a deeper understanding of imperial and colonial histories and the intersections of decolonial, racial, and environmental politics.