Description:

The Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and Whitney Humanities Center will co-host a discussion with Tao Leigh Goffe on her new book, “Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis.” She will be in conversation with Kaete O’Connell, assistant director of the Grand Strategy program.

In her book, Goffe charts the forces that have shaped the Caribbean islands: the legacy of slavery, indentured labor, and the forced toil of Chinese and enslaved Black people who mined the islands’ bounty for the benefit of European powers and at the expense of the islands’ sacred ecologies. Braiding together family history, cultural reportage and social studies, she radically transforms how we conceive Blackness, the natural world, colonialism, and the climate crisis. Through the lens of the Caribbean — both guide and warning of the man-made disasters that continue to plague our world — Goffe closely situates the origins of racism and climate catastrophe within a colonial context.

Goffe is a London-born, Black British award-winning writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between the UK and New York. She is currently an associate professor at Hunter College and founder and executive director of Dark Laboratory, a humanities lab centered on race, technology, and climate. Her research explores Black diasporic intellectual histories, and political and ecological life. Goffe studied English literature at Princeton University before pursuing a PhD at Yale University.

The event is open to the Yale community. Registration is required.