Settler colonial praxis and gender in contemporary times

Abstract

Amidst an ongoing conversation on the intersection of settler colonialism and gender, this introduction emphasizes the urgency for a continued gendered critique of settler colonialism and the imperative to look beyond the theoretical aspects of such analyses to the actual embodied experiences of the legacy of gendered violence and inequalities imposed by settler colonialisms, and to consider how they instruct our academic effort. We emphasize how historical gendered settler violence has enduring impacts on real people such as in the contemporary crisis of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People (MMIWG2S) in North America, while the essays collected in this special issue reflect some of the variety in discussions on the intricate relational dynamics between gendered systems and individual agents in diverse settler colonial contexts. We call attention not only to how gendered categories can be utilized as a tool of authority and oppression but also to how gender-focused critique can play a role in resistance to settler colonialisms on a global scale. These perspectives contextualize the essays collected within this special issue and highlight the continued importance of this issue's work. The essays summarized in this introduction call for continued resistance to gendered violence, impositions, and inequalities inherent to settler colonialism.