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Join the Concordia Ethnography Lab on April 9th for the second edition of the Manuscript Workshops.
The purpose of each workshop is to help the author with a portion of the manuscript for a book they’re working on. The text will be shared two weeks beforehand so that attendees have time to read it and can come to the workshop ready for a constructive and generative discussion of the text. If If you’d like to learn more about writing, editing and publishing this workshop series is for you!
This workshop will focus on Knut Gunnar Nustad‘s latest book: Trout in the post-colony: landscapes, property and conservation in South Africa. Kregg Hetherington, Jesse Arsenault, and Blair Rutherford will lead the discussion.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In the late 19th century, British settlers released trout into South Africa’s rivers, seeking to recreate their homeland’s streams and sporting traditions. What seemed a small act of ecological import would ripple across landscapes, conservation practices, and cultural imaginations for over a century. Through this seemingly innocuous species, this book explores how colonial legacies continue to shape environments, politics, and landscapes in South Africa and beyond. Trout were spread from their North American and European homes throughout the British Empire in a couple of decades from the mid-1860s. Unlike many other colonial species, trout were introduced first and foremost for sport and were protected through conservation efforts by colonial authorities. With the turn to biodiversity and concerns over alien species in the 1980s, many now argue for their eradication. Today, trout occupy a place in the postcolonial landscape that troubles many of the categories that we use to think about landscapes, including the distinction between the wild and the domestic, between science and coloniality, between politics and nature. The book sets out to critically rethink these categories through a case study of the colonial British transfer of trout to South Africa and what happened to them there. It argues that the story of trout in South Africa offers critical insights into the broader challenges of postcolonial natures. Rather than making an argument for or against trout, the book shows that to understand how colonial relations continue to shape landscapes in South Africa and elsewhere, we must take the world-shaping effects of trout seriously.
April 9, 2025 | 12-2 PM
: Speculative Life room EV 10.625
To sign up, please email the Concordia Ethnography Lab by April 1st.
Attendance is limited in order to ensure a good discussion.