The Society of Fellows hosts the Thursday Lecture Series (TLS), which runs regularly throughout the academic year. The Fall Semester TLS, our Fellows present their own work, chaired by Columbia faculty.

"Lush Aftermath: Race, Labor, Scorched Earth"

Lecture by Emma Shaw Crane
Chaired by Samuel K. Roberts

This lecture takes up the afterlives of scorched earth counterinsurgency in Guatemala in an unlikely place: a migrant suburb of Miami. In South Florida, ornamental plant and palm nurseries produce plant life that populates suburban landscapes across the United States. In contrast to analyses that emphasize the disorder of war, this talk attends to order and beauty in the wake of war. Emma Shaw Crane takes up the Homestead nurseries—and the suburban landscapes they produce—as a lush and lucrative aftermath of scorched earth. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with developers, plant nursery owners, and Maya migrant workers, Crane shows that displacement and policing in the wake of counterinsurgent war nurture (sub)urban regimes of property and personhood.

This event also will be recorded. By being electronically present, you consent to the SOF/Heyman using such video for promotional purposes.

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.