In the wake of the “non-events” of emancipation and decolonization, Global Apartheid and Planetary Ecocide have become the primary means and ends of the War on Terra — the unnamable biopolitical and necropolitical war that the forces of colonialism and racial capitalism have waged for nearly six centuries against our planet and her multitudes, with an extreme prejudice against her Black and Indigenous multitudes.

“Global Apartheid” names the inter-national and intra-national racial hierarchies and regimes of organized abandonment that have maintained and advanced the privileges of colonizers and their proxies/redeemers in the wake of the “non-events” of emancipation and decolonization.

“Planetary Ecocide” names the “managed depletion” of the planet’s natural resources by those bent on maximizing the pleasures and profits that they enjoy at the top of the aforementioned inter-national and intra-national racial hierarchies.

The terms “Global Apartheid” and “Planetary Ecocide” do not name well thought out elite conspiracies. Rather to the contrary, they name the accretion of centuries of desperate and hasty marriages of convenience that have enabled colonizers and their proxies/redeemers to maintain and advance privileges to which they are trauma bound: a loose consensus formed around numerous local solutions to cascading social crises — solutions designed to overcome short-term difficulties at the time of their formulation.

This AREA Studies Seminar & Studio will invite participants to make plans with one another to deconstruct the statements, implements, and built environments that maintain and advance Global Apartheid and Planetary Ecocide.

This Seminar & Studio will revolve around curated readings from seven texts:

• Colonialism in Global Perspective by Kris Manjapra

• Towards a Global Idea of Race by Denise Ferreira da Silva

• Policing Empires by Julian Go

• Border & Rule by Harsha Walia

• Decolonial Ecology by Malcolm Ferdinand

• Twin Killers & The War on Terra by Muindi Fanuel Muindi

The bi-weekly Seminar & Studio sessions will be hybrid, taking place in-person in Portland, Oregon and virtually via Zoom.

Seminar & Studio sessions will abide by the principle of intellectual generosity. Participants will be encouraged to come as they are, to drop in whenever they can find the time and for however long they can find the time, regardless of whether they read the texts in advance. Participants who can only drop by for 15 minutes in the middle of a session without having done the readings will be just as welcome as participants who read every text twice over in advance and stay for full sessions.

There is no cost to participate, but those who have the means are encouraged to make a donation to support the Seminar & Studio organizer.