Browsing by Subject "colonialism"

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    Humans, Livestock, and Lions in Northwest Namibia
    (2019-12) Heydinger, John
    Humans, livestock, and lions have inhabited shared landscapes in northwest Namibia for hundreds of years. Currently, human-lion conflict (HLC) threatens pastoral livelihoods and the viability of the region’s desert-adapted lion population. In this dissertation I examine the history of human-livestock-lion relationships in the region. The goal is to create historically-informed solutions to HLC that are locally-inclusive. Drawing on archival, scientific, and governmental material, as well as social surveys and oral histories that I have performed, this is the first time that the disparate sources on human-livestock-lion relationships in northwest Namibia have been unified. While scholars of African environments have problematized interpretations of Africa’s environmental colonial and postcolonial past, this is the first work to examine human-predator relationships as a fulcrum for understanding colonial and postcolonial politics and the current challenges of conserving African lions. As a document informing ongoing conservation interventions, this is the first attempt to explicitly frame applied lion conservation activities within historical contexts, critically assessing livestock as mediators of human-lion interactions. I begin by showing how the precolonial and early-colonial experience of the region’s ovaHerero people was mediated through the control of livestock. I then examine how colonial era policies remade, and were aided by, the geography of predators. The effects of apartheid on the region’s wildlife showcase some of the important legacies of colonial-era policies. I then reveal the long history of human-lion interactions with particular emphasis on the transformative role of livestock. I then focus on the behavior and ecology of the desert-adapted lions, highlighting important contrasts with other lion populations and emphasizing how recent monitoring induced a paradigm shift. Finally, I center ongoing HLC within communal rangelands as experienced by pastoralists and suggest one way of reframing HLC that is founded in local perspectives.
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    Of, By, and For: Women of Color in the Arts and the Decolonial Journey
    (2021-08) David, Kimberly
    My research seeks to expand the discourse around decolonization by further dismantling and complicating the homogenous narrative of women of color in the arts within the colonial legacy. This work aims to reinforce the self-determination of women of color in challenging cultural production and shifting it from the Eurocentric scope as well as the gender power structure constructed by colonialism. The project responds to not only decolonization within the art world but also the erasure of colonized women which then demands our narratives be heard as part of the process of decolonization. This project engages in radical self-reflection by learning from and collaborating with a group of female leaders of color and approaches narrative through a decolonial lens. At the core of this work are five one-hour conversations engaging five women of color art leaders – all at different points in their careers and from vastly different backgrounds. Accompanying the written portion of the capstone, are the video files of each interview. These conversations center their individual narratives, their relationship to the art world, and the role of decolonization within their practices and ways of thinking. Focusing on the journeys of these five women as well as my own, a narrative methodology is used here. However, the standard academic process is also challenged as it often reflects coloniality/modernity–being a process based in knowledge and resource extraction. Contrastingly, this work emphasizes reciprocity and self- determination. Finally, reflexivity plays an important role in reciprocating my own narrative, perspectives, and vulnerabilities.