116. Confronting nuclear imperialism and nuclear colonialism for climate justice
Karly Burch, University of Auckland; Emily Simmonds, Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health; Sonja Mueller, University of Otago;
The war in Ukraine has been heightening people's awareness about nuclear war, which could be induced by a nuclear weapon or the destruction of other nuclear infrastructures (e.g., nuclear power plants or nuclear fuel storage facilities). There is growing recognition that nuclear weapons can onset almost instant forms of climate change (e.g., from a nuclear weapon-induced nuclear winter). Yet, nuclear energy continues to be touted as a technological savior to our climate crisis-a stance which overlooks nuclear energy's entrenched entanglements with both nuclear imperialism and nuclear colonialism (Burch et al. Forthcoming).
In this panel, we invite papers concerned with nuclear matters, particularly those with an emphasis on feminists, anti-colonial and anti-imperial scholarship and praxis. We also invite papers exploring the complex entanglements between nuclear colonialism/justice and climate colonialism/justice, as well as those that attend to the challenges posed to people engaging in critical nuclear scholarship.
Accepted papers may engage with, but are not limited to, the following inquiries:
-What are different ways of understanding criticality and crisis within the field of nuclear studies?
-How do we articulate and address the complex entanglements between nuclear colonialism/justice and climate colonialism/justice?
-How do we engage in critical conversations about nuclear issues within dominant knowledge hierarchies that actively perpetuate epistemic injustice, racism and epistemicide?
-How do critical nuclear scholars navigate experiences of gaslighting within academia and public spaces?
-How do nuclear crises and their solutions maintain existing power structures?
-What might feminist, anti-colonial solutions to our current nuclear crises look like in practice?
