When: October 23rd, 16.00-17.00 (Finnish time, EEST) 14.00-15.00 (UK time)
Where: Online on Zoom. The Zoom link will be provided closer to the event.
On the 23rd of October, EXALT is happy to welcome Joanna Allan to present and discuss her book: Saharan Winds: Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara.
The book focuses on extractivism in Africa's last colony, Western Sahara, where solar and wind developments, as well as oil exploration, undermine the Indigenous Saharawis' aspirations for independence. However, the book also explores alternative energy developments led by Saharawis' living in exile in Algeria, and in the liberated part of Western Sahara that they control. The book argues that changing the way we imagine and understand wind can help us ensure a globally just wind energy future. It aims to contribute to a fairer energy horizon by illuminating the role of imaginaries – how we understand energy sources such as wind and the meanings we attach to wind - in determining the wider politics, whether oppressive or just, associated with energy systems.
This book presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, offering participants the chance to engage with Joanna Allan on the key themes of the book.
Joanna has been based in the Centre for Global Development at Northumbria since March 2019. Her research focuses on resistance to neocolonial natural resource exploitation, histories of women's anti-colonial resistance movements, Saharawi and Equatoguinean (resistance) literatures, environmental justice, and the relationship between energy and culture.