Collective cluster member Publications
Artiga-Purcell, J. A., Chiasson-LeBel, T., Leiva, F., & Watanabe-Farro, A. (2023). Disaster extractivism: Latin America’s extractive shock therapy in the age of COVID-19. Latin American Perspectives, 50(4), 172–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X231172274
Chiasson-LeBel, Thomas, Tamara Ortega-Uribe, Natan Edenhofer, and Alejandro Artiga-Purcell. (Forthcoming). “Anti-Extractivism Contesting and Empowering Resource Nationalism in the Americas.” In Resource Nationalism in the Global South, edited by Jewellord Tolentino Nem Singh, Jesse Salah Ovadia, and Richard Saunders. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.
Leiva, F. & Ortega-Uribe, T. (Forthcoming). El proyecto minero Dominga visto desde la economía política cultural crítica: Mitos, mecanismos de despojo, y resistencias comunitarias.
Ortega-Uribe, T. & Ocampo, T. (2023). Extractivism. In Keywords in Political Economy. A Critical Glossary for Critical Minds. University of California Santa Cruz. https://keywords.sites.ucsc.edu/2023/09/29/extractivism/
Chiasson-LeBel, Thomas, James Alejandro Artiga-Purcell, and Alejandra Watanabe-Farro. “Pandemia y extractivismo: una contaminación colonizadora cruzada – Rebelion.” Rebelión, 2020. https://rebelion.org/pandemia-y-extractivismo-una-contaminacion-colonizadora-cruzada/.
Syllabi
LALS 94-X – Mother Nature, Capitalism, and Crises
With a focus on the Americas, this course introduces students to the debates about the causes and proposed solutions to the triple crisis of global climate change, rising global inequality, and ascending authoritarianism. The course textbook is Patel and Moore’s A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
LALS 141 – The Underside of the Green Energy Transition
This course examines the “unseen” aspects of “green energy transition” narratives, policies, and “sustainable” projects. It explores the discursive, socio-ecological, economic, logistics, political, and cultural dimensions of specific “renewable energy industries” and “critical minerals” that make up “green capitalism” while focused on resulting “sacrifice zones” and affected communities. Students engage in case studies of specific solar, wind, lithium, hydrogen, desalinization, and “sustainable copper” projects to deepen their understanding of the multiple challenges faced in building just and sustainable futures.
LALS 194-X – Extractivism and Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Americas
This course engages in an in-depth exploration of how local communities, transnational capital, and the state participate in conflicts anchored in extractive sectors of the Americas (i.e. mining, agro-exports, etc.). Through digital based case study research, students identify and explore (1) logics of action, (2) strategic interests, (3) rhetoric, and (4) modes of intervention deployed by three key protagonists of socio-environmental conflicts: Multinational extractive corporations, communities, and the state. By drawing from critical cultural political economy, Latin American political ecology, and digital humanities, over the course of the quarter, students trace the arc of one specific conflict to better ground their understanding of how power relations are enacted and contested.