Tania Aguila-way

Biography

My research focuses on the intersection between Canadian literary studies, postcolonial studies, and the environmental humanities. Currently, I am working on two book-length projects. The first one explores the relationship between scientific epistemology and environmental anxiety in contemporary Asian Canadian literature. I argue that recent Asian Canadian writing marks an important new direction in the postcolonial critique of science by imagining ways in which decolonizing and environmental justice movements might interface with scientific knowledge to challenge emergent forms of biopolitical control and ecological degradation. My second project examines representations of seed ecologies and seed activism in contemporary Canadian literary and cultural production. It surveys burgeoning field of Canadian cultural production that draws on avant-garde and new media elements to intervene in contemporary environmental debates surrounding the erosion of the seed commons via the spread of genetically modified seeds. I argue that more than simply registering contemporary anxieties about the risks associated with the spread of GMO monocultures, these aesthetic experiments have a unique role to play in illuminating the complex environmental and social relations that seed conservation depends upon. On the whole, I am interested in exploring how Canadian literature, as a tradition that has long grappled with questions of cultural and epistemic hybridity, can participate in the production of an environmental ethics that draws on the resources of both the humanities and the sciences in order to address pressing environmental issues. My research focuses on the intersection between Canadian literary studies, postcolonial studies, and the environmental humanities. Currently, I am working on two book-length projects. The first one explores the relationship between scientific epistemology and environmental anxiety in contemporary Asian Canadian literature. I argue that recent Asian Canadian writing marks an important new direction in the postcolonial critique of science by imagining ways in which decolonizing and environmental justice movements might interface with scientific knowledge to challenge emergent forms of biopolitical control and ecological degradation. My second project examines representations of seed ecologies and seed activism in contemporary Canadian literary and cultural production. It surveys burgeoning field of Canadian cultural production that draws on avant-garde and new media elements to intervene in contemporary environmental debates surrounding the erosion of the seed commons via the spread of genetically modified seeds. I argue that more than simply registering contemporary anxieties about the risks associated with the spread of GMO monocultures, these aesthetic experiments have a unique role to play in illuminating the complex environmental and social relations that seed conservation depends upon. On the whole, I am interested in exploring how Canadian literature, as a tradition that has long grappled with questions of cultural and epistemic hybridity, can participate in the production of an environmental ethics that draws on the resources of both the humanities and the sciences in order to address pressing environmental issues.

Research Interest

intersection between Canadian literary studies, postcolonial studies, and the environmental humanities.