Brahim el Guabli: Rethinking Nature through Arid Lands: Saharanism and its Impacts.
Thursday | June 19, 2025 | 10:15-11:00
Goethe and Schiller Archive, Jenaer Straße 1, 99423 Weimar
Abstract:
This paper will discuss the impact the phenomenon of Saharanism has had on the way desert and arid nature have been conceptualized and treated. Drawing on a wealth of sources across desertic areas, this paper will demonstrate that Saharanism, albeit under-reached and unarticulated, is a powerful ideology that undergirds the manner arid environments are produced, spoken about, and (mis)treated. From colonial administrations to the UNESCO and theorization of nomadism, Saharanism has drawn on the physical and demographic realities of arid lands to produce universalizing ideas about the environment, including ways to transform it or make it profitable. By articulating the ideas underpinning Saharanism and demonstrating how it's work in different intellectual trends, this paper will both shed a new light on and challenge the biases that most people have internalized about arid spaces.