The Department of Geography and Environmental Studies presents a special Founders Seminar on Wednesday, March 8th at 3pm in Loeb A410.
This Founders Seminar presents Dr. David Hugill and his talk titled “Settler Colonial Theory and the Limits of “Colonial City” Thinking.”
Dr. Hugill is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow with Simon Fraser University’s Department of Geography.
Abstract: In the spirit of critical engagement that this position calls for, my presentation surveys some of the key limitations of the existing geographical work on colonial urbanisms. Specifically, it argues that geographical interest in the functioning of “colonial cities” is informed by too narrow an interpretation of what constitutes a colonial urban environment. Because such analyses focus almost exclusively on the urban effects of metropolitan forms of colonization, they are of limited analytic use in critical evaluations of places where different sorts of imperial practice prevails, including settler colonial societies like Canada, Australia, and the United States, among others. In an effort to address this limitation, my presentation argues that the time is right for a rapprochement between urban geography and the emergent social scientific literature on the politics of settler colonization. Drawing on empirical examples from my own research, it demonstrates that both research traditions have much to gain from such an engagement.
For more information about this event and to view the poster, please follow the link.