Signifying Haitian Migration and the Politics of Land

Marco Pflanzen examines the legacy of colonialism at the US-Mexico border, specifically the US Border Patrol’s pursuit and detention of Haitian migrants. Pflanzen argues that the images and rhetoric should be understood against the backdrop of vigilante justice against enslaved Africans and that both historical moments have underexamined ecological ramifications. Pflanzen brings an ecological sensitivity to the significations and affections at play in a manner that broadens scholarly understandings of nature and discourse alike.