The KLI
Entry 445 of 488

News Details

2024-05-20
Book Review Forum: Pollution Is Colonialism by Max Liboiron, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2021

This book review forum is published in the peered reviewed journal Landscape Research. Along with Laura Menatti (book review editor) and Emma Waterson (Editor-in-Chief), the reviewers who contributed to the review forum are Rosie 'Anolani Alegado (kanaka 'oiwi), tebrakunna country, Emma Lee, Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, Tim Waterman and the book’s author Max Liboiron.

Max Liboiron is a Professor in Geography and was formerly the Associate Vice-President (Indigenous Research) at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Liboiron is Red River Métis/Michif and settler raised in Lac la Biche, Treaty 6 territory. Gender pronouns: they/them. Liboiron is pronounced: Lee-Bwah-rohn.

Pollution Is Colonialism is Max Liboiron's first book, and explores the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Indigenous studies, and discard studies. It offers a framework for viewing all research methods as either aligning with or against colonialism. With a specific focus on plastic pollution, the book showcases an anticolonial scientific approach that emphasizes land, ethics, and relationships, and illustrates that anticolonial science is not only feasible but is actively practiced.

The book had also been collectively read and discussed during one of the Science Studies reading group sessions here at KLI, and a copy is available at the KLI library.