About this Event
Planetary Geostories and Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy
As planetarians, “we” are entering a phase whereby the destruction of the earth (geos) through historic processes of extraction and colonialism by a select group of humans (bios) is producing a geophysical genre that might be termed geocide. The mythic and geophysical nature of this geocide–sometimes called the Anthropocene—names the action of changing the earth to such an extent that it is becoming both unrecognisable and unliveable; first for the few and then for the many.
This talk contrasts two earthly geostories—Alexis Wright’s Praiseworthy (2023) and Thomas Griffith Taylor’s Environment and Race (1927). The former is an epic account of planetary world-building that mobilises a sovereign political economy as connected across deep times and multiple beings, which propels life into the future in the midst of broken colonial earths. The latter is indicative of colonial world-building through environmental transformation and racialisation as envisaged by an Australian colonial immigrant and geographer.
Geocide is a concept that outlines a geophysical action and an imaginative event, as it displaces the sovereign ability to imagine or inhabit a world otherwise. Between planetary accounts of colonial environments and Wright’s “sovereignty of the imagination”, a path out of geocide is dreamt and offered.
Date: Wednesday, 25 November 2026
Time: 6pm - 7pm Lecture
Venue: The Forum Theatre (Room 153), Level 1 Arts West - North Wing (Building 148a), Parkville Campus, University of Melbourne - Entrance off Professor's Walk.
See image below of building entrance. and .
Please Note: Due to the theatre's limited capacity, please only register for a seated ticket if you are sure to be attending in person. This presentation will not be recorded for later viewing.
Attendee discretion is advised: The talk discusses issues of colonialism which are replete with histories of geotrauma and practices of violent racialisation. Specifically, there is brief mention of racial theories and environmental change, the pseudo-science of racial theories through head measurements that were popular in geography in the twentieth century, and the context of the White Australia policy in relation to these theories.
Photo credit – talktalk_Lison2025©JoanaLinda
Kathryn Yusoff is Professor of Inhuman Geography at Queen Mary University of London, where her research interrogates the geologies of race, extraction and critical environmental humanities and historical geographies of colonial power. She is author of Geologic Life: Inhuman Intimacies and the Geophysics of Race (Duke University Press, 2024), A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) and co-author of Planetary Portals (Goldsmiths Press, 2026). She was one of the curators of the British Pavillion, GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, which received a special mention.
The Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Program was established in 1993 by the University Council, based on a recommendation from the Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund Committee - the body responsible for the management of the Russell Grimwade bequest.
Awarded annually, the Fellowships enable overseas scholars of international distinction to make an extended visit to the University and contribute to the University's academic, intellectual and cultural life.
Image of Arts West Building and Entrance
Inside the Forum Theatre
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Event venue & nearby stays
Arts West Building (Building 148), Royal Parade, Parkville, Australia
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