The session will commence on 29 April at 6.00 PM IST/8:30 AM EST via zoom. Register

About the author:

Dr. Mohamed Amer Meziane, a philosopher and performer, currently serves as an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Brown University. Prior to this role, he held teaching positions as a Fellow and Lecturer at Columbia University. He is the author of “Des empires sous la Terre,” his first book, published in French by La Découverte in 2021. The translated version of the book “The States of the Earth: An Ecological and Racial History of Secularization” is published by Verso Books. It deploys an ecological and racial history of secularisation, thus rereading the history of Western modernity during the 19th century through the lenses of both its colonial matrix and its environmental consequences. His work on 19th Algeria plays a crucial role in this history as a site in which the racialisation not of colour but of politics and religion, of Jews and Muslims, has been deployed by colonialism.

About the book

In the nineteenth century, amid the scramble for colonies in Asia and Africa, the traditional drive for religious conversion gave way to a broader mission of civilisation. This shift towards secularisation coincided with the rise of racial capitalism within the era of empires, envisioning a utopian realm through the relentless pursuit of wealth and the exploitation of nature. Contrary to defending religious ideologies, “The States of the Earth” posits that phenomena like evangelism and political Islam are better grasped as byproducts of empire and secularisation. In a world where material progress was revered as divine, both religious and secular factions sought to create a paradise on Earth, unwittingly causing harm to the very planet they sought to transform into a heavenly abode.