Coming soon: New Special Collection in Spanish to Launch in the Open Library of Humanities Journal

We are extremely pleased to announce that a new Special Collection in Spanish, “Colonialities in Dispute: Discourses on Colonialism and Race in Spain” (Colonialidades en Disputa: Discursos sobre Colonialismo y Raza en el Estado Español), will launch this winter in the Open Library of Humanities megajournal. The Special Collection, which will be the journal’s first Spanish-language collection, will be edited by Dr Larisa Pérez Flores (Member of the Decolonial Studies Research Group of the University of La Laguna in Tenerife) and Paula Clemente Vega (PhD Candidate at Birkbeck University of London). The Special Collection will bring together contributions from scholars, artists and activists working on critical discourses about racism, colonial history, the “nation-state”, feminism(s) and LGTBIQ.

Larisa Pérez Flores and Paula Clemente Vega, guest editors of the Special Collection, commented: “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to publish this Special Collection in Spanish in the Open Library of Humanities journal. The open access format of the collection will be an opportunity to bring these pertinent discussions beyond academia and so also contribute to expand the scope of the journal to the Hispanic world. The decolonial readings in particular, coming largely from Abya Yala and its islands, have found shelter on the other side of the Atlantic thanks, to a large extent, to the fact that much of the theoretical production is in Spanish. An imperial language acts as a transatlantic bridge, although for many it still remains a trap, both on one side and on the other side of the ocean."

“In a fragmented research and discursive framework, this collection is about bringing together the debates about colonialism currently taking place in the context of Spain in an attempt to expose the concealed colonial heritage of the country. Spain is a country where hispanist readings of history, culture and identity continue to shape its present; where notions such as race have been largely excluded or underestimated from the analyses of oppression; where the colonial enterprises of the Spanish empire have been sugar-coated; where the presence and the contributions of racialized bodies have been made invisible and/or appropriated; where there are still pending territories of decolonization and where institutional racism continues to limit and take the lives of thousands of racialised bodies."

“This publication is also especially relevant in the current socio-political context of the country, where the Spanish extreme right has recently gained a vertiginous political protagonism and influence, and where racist discourses and monolithic understandings of Spanish culture and identity continue to be successfully used by right wing ideologies to legitimate political discourses, gain support and build social consensus. But it is also relevant in the context of the left, where debates about coloniality have been largely absent." 

“Coloniality does not operate in the same way for the diversity of bodies that claim it, which implies both recognising old oppressions and denouncing renewed privileges, an issue which is not traditionally recognised by the sovereignist or feminist struggles of Spain. Different territories are shown in a double condition, as victims and executioners, of a modern-colonial inheritance impassable over the centuries. This publication will be an attempt to redraw, with precision, the irregular map of these superimposed colonialities.”

Dr Rose Harris-Birtill (OLH Managing Editor), added: “We are delighted to welcome the Open Library of Humanities journal’s first Spanish-language collection, and the vital scholarly contribution that Colonialidades en Disputa / Colonialities in Dispute will make to pressing current issues on race and colonialism in Spain. In these turbulent times, understanding and revaluing diversity is perhaps more important than ever before, and this collection will bring together a range of different perspectives to highlight the far-reaching consequences of colonialism across geographies and cultures. This collection will join over 30 other OLH Special Collections, each featuring curated content from experts in the field, and which are all proudly open access for the benefit of all.” 

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Cover Image from the documentary "Tenerife" by Yves Allegret (Tenerife, 1932)