SouthTalks: “Race Land: The Ecology of Segregation”

Maarten Zwiers presents “Race Land: The Ecology of Segregation,” which is a global and environmental history of the Jim Crow South during the Cold War era. Segregationists not only exploited (and destroyed) human beings, but also the environment—human and natural resources were systematically mined to uphold the social ecosystem of the South. In this SouthTalk, Maarten Zwiers will discuss the multifaceted and transnational nature of US segregationist thought and practice and the global networks its proponents formed in the years after World War II to sustain their White-supremacist worldview.

Zwiers is a senior lecturer in contemporary history and American studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is the author of Senator James Eastland: Mississippi’s Jim Crow Democrat. He is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

SouthTalks is a series of events – including lectures, performances, film screenings and panel discussions – that explores the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public, and typically takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted.