Political ecologists recognize that environmental issues are political and therefore intricately tied to social and economic issues. We also understand that such issues have shared (political) root causes and that addressing ecological problems means addressing social and economic problems at the structural level as well. And although the PE Reading Group has included readings by members of marginalized groups and on issues such as environmental justice, decolonization, and feminist ecologies in the past, the recent global recognition of the importance of practicing anti-racism has led to a decision to focus specifically on anti-racism for next year’s readings.

At the same time, we recognize that over half of the Black community is also subjected to gendered oppression and that many Black people also experience oppression based on many other categorizations (e.g. sexuality, immigrant status, religion, class, age). As such, it is impossible to discuss Black liberation without also discussing the many other forms of oppression that intersect with anti-black racism. Moreover, although recent global events have focused on anti-black racism, Black liberation cannot occur without addressing white supremacy, which manifests in many ways in different countries and institutions and targets other non-white communities in various and unique ways. Therefore, for our Political Ecology Reading Group for the 2020/21 Academic Year, we plan to focus specifically on anti-oppression and on books written by members of marginalized groups.

(Note: All reading discussions will be at 16:00 CET. Location TBD as corona restrictions continue to be updated. Please contact me directly if you have any questions: sierra.deutsch@wur.nl).

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