Faculty:
- Arts, Department of Communication Arts
Country of origin: Belgium
Academic degrees and institutions:
- PhD in English Literature and Film Studies - KU Leuven and Ghent University (2021)
- MA in Comparative Literature - Ghent University, Belgium (2017)
- MA in Critical and Cultural Theory - KU Leuven, Belgium (2016)
- MA in Dutch and English Literature - Ghent University, Belgium, (2015)
Describe your work and how it embodies the nature of the AMTD postdoctoral program.
The main societal impact of my work relates to its intended attempt at raising broader public awareness of the violence committed on Indigenous communities through settler-colonial fossil fuel extractivism in Canada. To secure long-term societal impact, I will organize a workshop, a public lecture series, produce podcasts and develop several other modes of public engagement, which should help to create and expand such public awareness. Part of my work aims to make and facilitate recommendations regarding (Indigenous) energy policy in settler-colonial nations and beyond.
What are some activities you hope to accomplish during your postdoctoral appointment at University of Waterloo?
- I hope to finish a draft for a monograph on petrocultural extractivist violence and contemporary Indigenous Canadian literature and art.
- I aim to publish multiple scholarly articles in high-ranked international, peer-reviewed journals.
- I will explore the possibility of arranging a public speaker series in collaboration with local KW library branches in order to expand interest in Indigenous environmental justice and Canada’s extractivist violence, thereby creating opportunities for community engagement.
- I aim to organize a two-day symposium addressing issues arising from Indigenous Research in the humanities carried out by non-Indigenous scholars, with a focus on research conducted by graduate and postdoctoral researchers and bring them in contact with Indigenous researchers from multiple disciplines.
Have you been the recipient of any other major or donor-funded awards?
- 2024-2027: Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders
- 2017-2021: PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders
- 2019-2020: Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation
Do you have any relevant academic projects you would like to share?
AMTD Project: "Imperial Extractivist Infrastructures: Petrocultural Violence and Resistance in Contemporary Indigenous Canadian Literature, Art, and Film".
This project focuses on violence related to extractivist practices, with specific attention to fossil fuel extraction, in relation to Canada’s Indigenous communities. My aim in this project is to document the still understudied (and possibly undervalued) cultural and aesthetic responses of Indigenous communities to trauma evoked by the violence of extractivism. Through an examination of contemporary Indigenous Canadian creative practices, this project will contribute a new critical perspective to this crucial discussion, to expand ongoing critical studies of extractivism, settler colonialism, and Indigenous rights and futures.
Side project: "A Cultural History of American Loneliness: From American Transcendentalism to BoJack Horseman" (working title).
Why did you choose the University of Waterloo?
The University of Waterloo attracted my attention because of its strong scholarship in my area of expertise, the environmental and energy humanities. I wanted to work with Professor Imre Szeman, the foremost scholar in the latter field and thus applied for the AMTD program in order to do just that!
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I'm an avid reader (mainly contemporary Anglophone fiction), and a film aficionado—so you'll often find me in KW's arthouse cinemas. I also write and play music, particularly ambient soundscapes, and write poetry. And when time permits, I enjoy doing some sports as well.
Learn more:
- Access Reuben's personal website
- Follow Reuben on X (formerly Twitter)