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# A Suggested Reading List on Settler Colonialism
- URL: https://www.merip.org/2022/05/a-suggested-reading-list-on-settler-colonialism/
- Published: 2022-05-11T12:23:12.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-30T04:06:20.000Z
- Description: To complement MERIP’s special issue on settler colonialism, this reading list includes books and articles that map the burgeoning field of settler colonial studies. Although the practices of theorizing, teaching and activism are entwined, we broke the list into sections to aid readers who wish to ex
- Author: The Editors of Issue #302
- Tags: MER Article, Activism, Knowledge production, Scholarship, Settler Colonialism, #wp, #wp-post, Issue 302, #Articles

To complement MERIP’s special issue on settler colonialism, this reading list includes books and articles that map the burgeoning field of settler colonial studies. Although the practices of theorizing, teaching and activism are entwined, we broke the list into sections to aid readers who wish to explore settler colonialism and decolonization from slightly different angles.

The first set of texts, “For the Scholar,” theorizes settler colonialism as a force that continues to structure legal systems and hierarchies today. These texts explore both the particularities of specific settler-colonial endeavors, as well as trace settler colonialism as a transnational form of control.

The second set of texts, “For the Classroom,” includes widely read and influential sources that provide overviews of settler colonial studies. These texts may be useful for introducing pertinent questions and theories within the field to students.

The final list, “For the Organizer,” explores indigenous forms of activism and critique, highlighting the agency of Indigenous peoples. These texts map paths forward for engaged scholarship.

## **For the Scholar**

*[An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/oral-history-of-the-palestinian-nakba-9781786993502/)* edited by Nahla Abdo and Nur Masalha.

*[Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History](https://www.routledge.com/Genocide-in-Libya-Shar-a-Hidden-Colonial-History/Ahmida/p/book/9780367468897)* by Ali Abdullatif Ahmida.

[“Introduction: Settler Colonialism and French Algeria”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2201473X.2016.1273862) by Fiona Barclay, Charlotte Ann Chopin and Martin Evans.

*[Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994](https://chicago.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7208/chicago/9780226430126.001.0001/upso-9780226429922-chapter-007)* by Andy Clarno.

["'A Structure, Not an Event:' Settler Colonialism and Enduring Indigeneity”](https://csalateral.org/issue/5-1/forum-alt-humanities-settler-colonialism-enduring-indigeneity-kauanui/) by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui.

*[The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine)* by Rashid Khalidi.

*[Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and UnMaking of Permanent Minorities](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987326)* by Mahmood Mamdani.

*[Architecture and Tourism in Italian Colonial Libya: An Ambivalent Modernism](https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295741413/architecture-and-tourism-in-italian-colonial-libya/)* by Brian McLaren.

*[Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bône, 1870–1920](https://www.cambridge.org/tr/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/making-algeria-french-colonialism-bone-18701920?format=PB&isbn=9780521531283)* by David Prochaska.

[*Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society*](https://btlbooks.com/book/race-space-and-the-law) edited by Sherene Razack.

[*Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya* ](https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190673796.001.0001/oso-9780190673796)by Eileen Ryan.

*[Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel's Liberal Settler State](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21669)* by Shira Robinson.

[“Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648823) by Omar Jabary Salamanca, Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie and Sobhi Samour.

*[Fourth Shore: The Italian Colonization of Libya](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/fourth-shore-the-italian-colonization-of-libya-by-claudio-g-segre-chicago-the-university-of-chicago-press-1975-pp-237-1500/858ABF7AF7FC2E0C391245F2CDC97D27)* by Claudio G. Segrè.

[“Citizenship as Domination: Settler Colonialism and the Making of Palestinian Citizenship in Israel”](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract%5Fid=3533490) by Lana Tatour.

[“The Nation-State Law: Negotiating Liberal Settler Colonialism”](https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/4/3/577/294170/The-Nation-State-LawNegotiating-Liberal-Settler) by Lana Tatour.

[“Theorising Gender, Sexuality and Settler Colonialism: An Introduction](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648839)” by Scott Morgensen.

[“Historylessness: Australia as a Settler Colonial Collective”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13688790701488155?journalCode=cpcs20) by Lorenzo Veracini.

*[Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/ Palestine](https://www.pennpress.org/9780812239270/ethnocracy/)* by Oren Yiftachel.

## **For the Classroom**

[“Locating Settler Colonialism”](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/491173#:~:text=Understanding%20settler%20colonialism%20by%20definition,conceptual%20as%20it%20is%20material.) by Adam Barker.

*[Empire of the People: Settler Colonialism and the Foundations of Modern Democratic Thought](https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2607-6.html)* by Adam Dahl.

*[American Settler Colonialism: A History](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137374264)* by Walter Hixson.

[“What Is Settler Colonialism? (For Leo Delano Ames Jr.)”](https://meridian.allenpress.com/aicrj/article-abstract/37/2/23/210853/What-Is-Settler-Colonialism-for-Leo-Delano-Ames-Jr?redirectedFrom=fulltext) by Maya Mikdashi.

“[Settler Colonialism in Early American History: Introduction](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.76.issue-3)” by Jeffrey Ostler and Nancy Shoemaker.

[“Introducing: Settler Colonial Studies”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2201473X.2011.10648799#:~:text=settler%20colonial%20studies%20aims%20to,manifestations%20of%20colonialism%20at%20large.) by Lorenzo Veracini.

["'Settler Colonialism': Career of a Concept”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03086534.2013.768099#:~:text=In%20a%20necessarily%20selective%20way,main%20passages%20in%20its%20development.) by Lorenzo Veracini.

*[The Settler Colonial Present](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137372475)* by Lorenzo Veracini.

[“Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240)” by Patrick Wolfe.

[“Settler Colonialism or Colonies with Settlers?”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2018.1429868?journalCode=rcas20) by Chris Youé.

[Standing Rock Syllabus](https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/standingrocksyllabus/), by The NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective.

## **For the Organizer**

[“Imagining Palestine’s Alter-natives: Settler Colonialism and Museum Politics”](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/710906) by Lila Abu-Lughod.

[“Decolonial Queering: The Politics of Being Queer in Palestine”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1525/jps.2018.47.3.29) by Walaa Alqaisiya.

[“Decolonising Feminism: Challenging Connections between Settler Colonialism and Heteropatriarchy”](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/504601) by Maile Arvin, Eve Tuck and Angie Morrill.

[“Who Will We be When We are Free? On Palestine and Futurity”](https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/24-futurisms/will-free-palestine-futurity-sophia-azeb) by Sophia Azeb.

[“Writing/Righting Palestine Studies: Settler Colonialism, Indigenous Sovereignty and Resisting the Ghost(s) of History”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2201473X.2017.1300048?journalCode=rset20) by Rana Barakat.

*[The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism](https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-transit-of-empire)* by Jodi Byrd.

*[High Stakes: Florida Seminole Gaming and Sovereignty](https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1315/High-StakesFlorida-Seminole-Gaming-and-Sovereignty)* by Jessica Cattelino.

[“Cultural and Land-Based Palestinian Resistance](https://thefunambulist.net/podcast/daily-podcast-21-chandni-desai-cultural-and-land-based-palestinian-resistance)” by Chandni Desai, a podcast from “A Moment of True Decolonization, A Daily Podcast Series by The Funambulist in Confinement.”

*[Between Indigenous and Settler Governance](https://www.routledge.com/Between-Indigenous-and-Settler-Governance/Ford-Rowse/p/book/9781138793972#:~:text=Between%20Indigenous%20and%20Settler%20Governance%20addresses%20the%20history%2C%20current%20development,Zealand%20and%20the%20United%20States.)* by Lisa Ford and Tim Rowse.

*[Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State](https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/grounded-authority)* by Shiri Pasternak.

*[Indigenous Heterogeneity](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1031461X.2014.946523?journalCode=rahs20)* by Tim Rowse.

*[Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States](https://www.dukeupress.edu/mohawk-interruptus)* by Audra Simpson.

*[Theorizing Native Studies](https://www.dukeupress.edu/theorizing-native-studies)* edited by Audra Simpson and Andrea Smith.

[“The Collaborative Struggle and the Permeability of Settler Colonialism”](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2201473X.2014.911649?journalCode=rset20) by Marcelo Svirsky.