'No Empires, No Dust Bowls' Session #2 with Hannah Holleman

The Dust Bowl was one of the first global environmental disasters of modern capitalism. This master class will examine how these regional crises of soil erosion were generated by a racialized political economy, colonialism, and imperialism. We will study the consequences of this era and its contribution to our current struggles with climate change, environmental injustice, and new threats of dust-bowlification. We will then contemplate efforts to transcend the white-man’s-burden version of environmentalism and to build the ecological solidarity required to heal current social and ecological rifts.

Hannah Holleman is associate professor of sociology and environmental studies at Amherst College. Her research involves social theory and environmental sociology. She is the author of "Dust Bowls of Empire: Imperialism, Environmental Politics and the Injustice of 'Green' Capitalism." Currently, she is studying the environmental movement in the context of COVID and in relation to our struggles for racial justice and indigenous sovereignty.