Settler Colonial Theory in Latin America and the Caribbean
21 June 2017, Swansea University
Singleton Campus, James Callaghan B02/03
Registration fee: £15 (£10 PG/unwaged) to cover catering costs
This one day workshop kindly supported by the Institute of Latin American Studies will bring
together an interdisciplinary group of scholars engaging with settler colonial theory and its
application in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). Seldom is LAC considered within
the ambit of Settler Colonial Studies, and settler colonialism in the region is not often
theorized using insights from other settler contexts. Our aim is to bridge these gaps, asking
how SCS might enrich interpretation of Latin American and Caribbean society, and how
reflection on LAC might in turn enrich settler colonial theory. Designed as a brainstorming
conversation to develop a field of enquiry, this event will enable a much-needed
conversation about a theoretical framework that has significant potential to shape analysis
of societies in LAC, but also to foreground the LAC region in academic debates outside the
area studies niche.
This event is open to the public but registration is essential. Please sign
up at: https://goo.gl/uy8oVn. Registration fee of £15 (£10 PG/unwaged)
to cover catering costs to be paid at the door.
Settler Colonial Theory in Latin America and the Caribbean
21 June 2017, Swansea University
Singleton Campus, James Callaghan B02/03
Programme:
9.15-9.30
Registration, welcome and introductions
9.30-10.30 Panel 1: Limits and Possibilities of SCT

'Caribbean Thought and Settler Colonial Studies' - Prof Stephen Howe (Department of
History, Bristol University)

'Settler colonialism in Latin America: shaking up assumptions, opening new
perspectives' - Dr Lucy Taylor (Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth
University)
10.30-11.00 Break-out discussion groups chaired by Prof Matthew Brown (School of
Modern Languages, University of Bristol) and Dr Jo Crow (School of Modern Languages,
University of Bristol) (James Callaghan B02/03 & B04)
11.00-11.15 Coffee & Tea
11.15-12.15 Panel 2: Applying SCT

'Bolivian De/Colonisation in the Context of Settler Colonial Theory' - Dr Peter Baker
(School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University)

'Looking at Patagonia and the wider Argentine state through the lens of Settler
Colonial Theory' - Dr Geraldine Lublin (Languages, Translation and Interpreting,
Swansea University)
12.15-12.45 Group discussion
12.45-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.30
Panel 3: Liminal positions and SCT

'Making Foreign: The Legacies of Settler Colonialism and their Impacts on Citizenship
& Belonging' - Eve Hayes de Kalaf (Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of
Law, University of Aberdeen)

'Too English to be Creole, too Creole to be English? Settler colonialism in the English
Caribbean'- Dr Natalie Zacek (American Studies Department, University of
Manchester)
2.30-3.00
Group discussion and future plans
3.00
Farewell
Abstracts
Panel 1: Limits and Possibilities of SCT
'Caribbean Thought and Settler Colonial Studies' - Prof Stephen Howe (Department of History,
Bristol University)
The Caribbean has never been a major focus for settler colonial studies – although it is naturally generally
recognised that all of the island societies have been places of substantial settlement. The journal Settler
Colonial Studies, the recent Routledge Handbook, and the becoming-canonical writings of Lorenzo Veracini
and Patrick Wolfe – none of these nor almost any other major body of relevant work which I know has
included substantial discussion of the Caribbean. Conversely, little in contemporary Caribbean thought uses a
distinctively settler model: if we can speak of dominant paradigms in that intellectual world, they would
rather be those of the plantation society and of creolisation. This paper asks what these thus-far little
explored relationships might look like, and whether they might prove fruitful: the broad potential outlines of
a settler colonial ‘model’ for Caribbean studies and (in slightly more detail) what theoretical work drawn
from radical Caribbean thinkers – from C.L.R. James or the New World group to Sylvia Wynter or Small Axe can contribute to analysing settler societies worldwide.
'Settler colonialism in Latin America: shaking up assumptions, opening new perspectives' - Dr Lucy
Taylor (Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University)
When Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is mentioned in settler colonial studies (SCS), only those places
that seemingly replicate Anglo-settler colonial experiences enjoy the focus of scholarship, notably Chile,
Argentina and Southern Brazil. This paper will explore – and contest – the assumptions that underpin this
selection. I argue that SCS tends to define settler colonialism according to the actions of the colonial order (at
Home and in the ‘New World’) rather than indigenous experience. Rather than economic factors (land and
labour), an indigenous-led focus might highlight political sovereignty. Given that LAC’s settlers have ‘come to
stay’ for 525 years, the region is a prime site for the study of settler colonialism. Building on this, I will
suggest at least two new perspectives that emerge if one thinks from LAC. The first is mestizaje which
challenges and complicates Anglophone settler colonialism’s emphasis on separation, rather than elision,
hybridity and complex power relations. The second is the presence of African slave descendants, which the
binaried ‘colonizer/colonized’ approach of SCS has not been able to handle. A view from Latin America,
though, suggests that African enslavement might be understood as actually integral to settler colonialism,
making it both profitable and enduring. Overall, I argue that thinking from LAC reveals social/racial
complexity as the norm, not the exception, to settler colonial regimes, and thus enriches this new field of
study.
Panel 2: Applying SCT
'Bolivian De/Colonisation in the Context of Settler Colonial Theory' - Dr Peter Baker (School of
Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University)
This paper seeks to reflect upon Lorenzo Veracini’s insightful proposals for a universalising theory of settler
colonialism, putting these proposals into dialogue with the history of the continuities and discontinuities of
the Bolivian 'settler' state. The paper will focus on both processes of colonisation as well as the recent
'decolonisation' of the state under Evo Morales's MAS administration. The paper will ultimately argue that
reframing our understanding of Bolivian history from the perspective of settler colonial theory can provide a
greater appreciation of the political, economic and cultural manifestations of (post)colonial relations in the
area, but that this may require us to also adjust some of the insights of settler colonial theory for the Bolivian
case (and, indeed, the Latin American case more generally). As the paper progresses, it will also aim to
provide a broader view of the implications of settler colonial theory for Latin America as a whole.
'Looking at Patagonia and the wider Argentine state through the lens of Settler Colonial Theory' Dr Geraldine Lublin (Languages, Translation and Interpreting, Swansea University)
Taking the Welsh settlement in Patagonia as a starting point, this presentation will explore the explanatory
power of SCT for the case of Argentina. Hailed as a paradigmatic example of mass European immigration, the
country is one of the few countries in Latin America to emerge in discussions about Settler Colonial Studies.
Nevertheless, these analyses focus mostly on economic indicators, so Argentina's settler colonial status is
often questioned in view of the country's never-ending economic crises, a propensity that would set it apart
from the former British colonies with which it is compared. When looking at the main tenets of SCT as laid
out by Patrick Wolfe and Lorenzo Veracini, however, it is clear that the 'logic of elimination' has been
fundamental to the shaping of the country and is still very relevant to its settler colonial structure. While
reflecting on this and other continuities between the settler colony and the settler state, another aim of this
presentation is to consider ways in which SCT may, indeed, contribute to the development of the 'coherent
and targeted decolonial practice' to which Veracini (2015, 6) aspires.
Panel 3: Liminal positions and SCT
'Making Foreign: The Legacies of Settler Colonialism and their Impacts on Citizenship & Belonging'
- Eve Hayes de Kalaf (Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen)
This contemporary study examines the legacies of settler colonial practices particularly in relation to civil
registrations and the identity management of indigenous and Afro-descended populations in Latin America
and the Caribbean. Specifically, it traces fundamental shifts in social policy introduced in the Dominican
Republic (DR) since 2004 to target the poor for subsidy payments. I argue that as international organisations
facilitated the expansion of projects to register and document Dominicans, the state also began to impede,
restrict and ultimately block access to citizenship paperwork from some Haitian-descended
populations. These actions culminated in a landmark 2013 Constitutional Tribunal ruling that retroactively
stripped the offspring of ‘undocumented’ migrants born in the DR since 1929 of their Dominican nationality,
ultimately rendering this group foreigners in their country of birth. Those affected included tens of thousands
of people already registered as Dominican nationals and in possession of citizenship paperwork. Through an
examination of the ways in which state architectures can (re)make and transform citizens into
foreigners (Nyers, 2009), this paper challenges some of the normative assumptions regarding the
inclusionary nature of citizenship paperwork, serving as a warning about the potential use of social policy
architectures and poverty-targeting mechanisms for exclusionary and authoritarian practices.
'Too English to be Creole, too Creole to be English? Settler colonialism in the English Caribbean'Dr Natalie Zacek (American Studies Department, University of Manchester)
This presentation examines the reasons that white settlers and their descendants were assigned a liminal
space in concess of race and nation during and after the era of slavery in the English Caribbean. As Ann Stoler
has noted, “colonial cultures were never direct translations of European society planted in the colonies, but
unique colonial configurations.” In the case of these island societies, white settlers, despite the great wealth
they generated not only for themselves but for the empire, were disliked and mistrusted in the metropole for
having allegedly fallen into physical and moral degeneracy and lost their Englishness. As their wealth and
power waned, they were stigmatised by Afro-Caribbeans as “white cockroaches,” sources of disgust and
ridicule among their former bondspeople and their descendants. Through a series of historical and literary
case studies, I will discuss the liminal position of Anglo-Caribbean settlers in the context of theories of settler
colonialism.