Environmental Justice Poetics: Cultural Representations of Environmental Racism from Chicanas and Women in India

This book is an interdisciplinary comparative investigation of activist, artistic, literary, and academic discourse―expressive work promoting ecological justice, ending racism, and representing self and community through virtual realism―a cultural poetics of environmental justice.

Research fixed on women’s work intervenes in patriarchal assumptions. Focus on marginalized areas in India and a U.S. movement led by people of color, defies racisms, and promotes vigilance against structural violence that permeates across political spectrums. Striving for environmental justice is not just community work, merely academic, or trendy art, performance, or literature. Environmental justice work demands interdisciplinary, transnational, transcommunity sharing, many border crossings and solid alliance-building. Chicanas and women in India engaged in such activities generate a rich cultural poetics―a transformative vision of environmental equity, ecological and civic wellbeing, and calming climate.

Kamala Platt, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University, USA.