The Tropical Studies Working Group (TSWG) explores the historical and contemporary conceptions of tropicality and the “Tropics.” Critiquing the Western notion of the tropical aesthetic and imaginary, this working group engages in discussions that center on Central and South America, the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Oceania. With the aim of examining and deconstructing colonial cartographies and their subsequent narratives, we hope to contest the peripheral status that centuries of empire have imposed on areas that continue to be marginalized and exploited. As we seek to re-center the tropics within frameworks of planetary justice and life politics as well as profess the agency of tropical communities and spaces, this group aims to understand race, ethnicity, nation, climate, labor, and capital through the development of tropicality. Bringing together individuals across diverse disciplines, such as (but not limited to) anthropology, literature, linguistics, translation, visual culture, digital humanities, environmental studies, architecture, art history, and political economy, TSWG invites members of the Yale community and beyond to join us in reading circles, film screenings, collective writing workshops, archive visits, exhibition-making, potlucks, and more. Website: Tropical Studies Working Group
Contacts:
isabella.bernstein@yale.edu
briseyda.barrientosariza@yale.edu