Racial Capitalism and the Anthropocene

Abstract

The ecological crises of the Anthropocene are unfolding at a time of growing economic inequality and rising racial tensions. International law has failed to halt or reverse the deterioration of the environment or to provide justice to disproportionately burdened states and peoples. This presentation will introduce the framework of racial capitalism as a means of exploring the under-theorized relationship between environmental degradation, racial subordination, and the capitalist world economy. 
 

Speaker 

Carmen G. Gonzalez is the Morris I. Leibman Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.  She has published widely on international environmental law, environmental justice, human rights and the environment, and food security. Her recent publications include International Environmental Law and the Global South (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Energy Justice: US and International Perspectives (Edward Elgar, 2018); and The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development (Cambridge University Press, 2021).  Professor Gonzalez has chaired the environmental law section of the Association of American Law Schools and served as member and deputy chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Earthjustice, the largest public interest environmental law firm in the United States. Professor Gonzalez holds a BA from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School. 

More information

Please note that this is a keynote event as part of the Essex Early Career Workshop on Critical Perspectives on Global Law and the Environment.

This event is free and open to all to attend. Participants will be invited to ask questions of our speaker using the Q&A function on zoom during the live event.

How to register

Please register for this event on Zoom.