Ecologies of Incarceration

Mauve Perle Tahat is a scholar whose interdisciplinary work examines the intersections of carceral systems, environmental aesthetics, and political praxis.

"Mauve Perle Tahat has done that rare, but always welcomed, feat of writing a book that is brilliant in different keys. This is a book that students, scholars, and general readers can pick up and engage with on multiple levels. Her focus on carceral systems, environmental studies, and political power results in a winding, multi-disciplinary exploration of racial capitalism, the Anthropocene, and prison literature. As she states, “Every supremacy is a flawed supremacy.” The only way we can achieve a more liberated future is by close examination of our built and shared environment along with a serious inventory of the cultural baggage we continue to reproduce in thought and action. “I’ve consistently asked, and maybe you have too: what has the human impact been [of the Anthropocene]? And this is where we can talk to ghosts.” Tahat shows us that although much of society would have us disregard people, places, and objects as “waste” or “trash,” it is in this dialogue with refuse where we will find our emancipation."

• Chapter 1: My Sea-gown Scarfed about Me, in the DarkChapter 2: Witness Chapter 3: HouseChapter 4: Stolen TimeChapter 5: Having a BodyChapter 6: Right-to-Life ReflexChapter 7: PossibilityChapter 8: Against ErasureChapter 9: The Practical Section