New Books Network Podcast Summary

Episode: Cassandra Shepard, "Settler Colonialism is the Disaster: A Critique of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina and During the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Host: Elliot (New Books Network)
Guest: Dr. Cassandra Shepard
Date: February 15, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features a deep conversation with Dr. Cassandra Shepard about her new book, Settler Colonialism is the Disaster, published by University of Illinois Press. The book provides a sweeping critique of the intersecting disasters of settler colonialism, Hurricane Katrina (2005), and the COVID-19 pandemic in New Orleans. Through historical analysis, personal interviews, and cultural critique—including a close reading of Beyoncé’s "Formation"—Shepard explores the ongoing impacts of colonial structures on Black and Indigenous New Orleanians, and argues for a decolonial vision of urban recovery and justice.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Origins and Motivation for the Book

• Personal and Academic Roots: Shepard began this research as an undergraduate interviewing Lower Ninth Ward residents, building on her own lived experience as a New Orleanian.
• Triple 'Post' Framework: The book revolves around three “posts”—post-Katrina, post-COVID, and post-colonialism—used “as illuminating metaphors to show us more about the way that these conditions carry on, even though we want to be beyond them.” (C, 04:48).
• Interdisciplinary Growth: Shepard’s academic journey included a pivot from reproductive rights to focusing on New Orleans as she struggled to name and understand the city’s ongoing traumatic and structural crises.

Disaster Capitalism vs. Settler Colonialism

• Building on Naomi Klein: Shepard acknowledges the influence of Klein’s "disaster capitalism" (from The Shock Doctrine) but contends that “people call out capitalism, but don't call out colonialism.” (C, 06:32)
• Expanding the Framework: Shepard explores terms like “capital colonial disaster” and “plantation capital colonial disaster” before folding them into “settler colonial disaster,” emphasizing that colonialism undergirds and shapes the dynamics of disaster capitalism.

“Really, these are just ways of explaining different aspects of this settler colonial system and how it is disastrous and also how it works through disasters.”
— Cassandra Shepard (08:04)

Defining Settler Colonialism

• A Structural and Ongoing System: Shepard draws on scholars like Tuck & Yang, Patrick Wolfe, Lorenzo Veracini, and Winona LaDuke. She stresses that settler colonialism is not just a historic event but an ongoing structure.
• Geographies of Power: The system collapses the distinction between ‘mother country’ and ‘colony’—extraction and exploitation occur in the same place.
• Mechanics of Dispossession: Key points include the settler’s “pretending to be native,” establishing sovereignty and privileged networks, and ultimately enacting Indigenous elimination.

“It is an ongoing colonial relationship… The space from which I speak to you right now is a settler colony that is engaged in this process.”
— Cassandra Shepard (09:48)

Reconstruction and Tourism

• Tourist Economy Dominance: Post-Katrina reconstruction prioritized tourism, especially in the French Quarter, with immense investment in surveillance and policing, often at the expense of social goods and residents’ needs.
• Cultural Exploitation: Black cultural practitioners are commodified as “symbols” to attract tourists, but are not supported or protected in tangible ways.

“Culture can be celebrated in a way that is superficial and that doesn't have the kind of deep engagement that you would want for the city to have with those who it makes its money off of.”
— Cassandra Shepard (19:23)

Everyday Rebuilding: The Story of Ms. Duplessis

• Piecemeal Rebuilding: The story illustrates how marginalized residents like Ms. Duplessis must repeatedly rebuild on their own, lacking structural support—she rebuilt her home, only to later discover toxic drywall, and was also victimized by contractor fraud.
• Structural Analysis: The narrative is used to expose piecemeal governmental response, liability loopholes, and how harm spreads “like a virus”—serving as a metaphor for settler colonialism’s persistence.

“I use the story to be able to talk about the structure, how it operates… The most vulnerable people wind up experiencing disaster repetitiously and almost in ways that we could predict.”
— Cassandra Shepard (27:55)

Cultural Critique: Beyoncé and the Politics of Representation

• Liberalism vs. Decolonialism: Shepard critiques the “superficial engagement” of Beyoncé’s “Formation”—particularly the sanitized response to police violence and the use of New Orleans’ imagery without substantive engagement with its people or problems.
• Extraction of Culture: Beyoncé’s use of New Orleans as backdrop, without substantive inclusion on her tour, is likened to the broader extraction and commodification seen in the city’s tourist economy.

“I say, I would rather have heard a decolonial statement… policing is a colonial violence. On whose grounds are you policing?”
— Cassandra Shepard (33:13)

Carceral and Police State in New Orleans

• ICE, Border Patrol, and Policing: Despite being a “sanctuary city,” New Orleans is under intensive surveillance by ICE, Border Patrol, and multiple police forces.
• Consent Decree and Exploitation: The city’s local police operate under a Department of Justice consent decree, but the governor invited state police (unbound by the decree) to amplify carceral repression, especially against Black, Brown, and protesting populations.

“We are a ground zero for this ramping up of the carceral state on a massive level, because… people who are protesting global issues are then being sent here and detained inside of our prisons.”
— Cassandra Shepard (40:20)

Towards a Liberatory Post-Katrina Rebuild

• Decolonization as Path Forward: Shepard outlines a vision centered on land return, mutual healing of people and environment, reparative and restorative justice, and a break with capitalist and colonial logics.
• Emphasis on Healing: Healing from trauma and injustice is as central as infrastructural or legal change.
• Future Work: Shepard’s next planned book will focus extensively on decolonization, with more practical steps and frameworks.

“A truly liberatory rebuild would be concerned with decolonization, which is about how we abolish coloniality and these colonial relationships… As we heal the people, we heal the land, and as we heal the land, we heal the people.”
— Cassandra Shepard (43:28)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Triple Post Framework:
  “I use them as illuminating metaphors to show us more about the way that these conditions carry on, even though we want to be beyond them.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (04:48)

• On Disaster Capitalism:
  “People call out capitalism, but don't call out colonialism.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (06:32)

• On Settler Colonialism’s Structure:
  “The foreign population, after pretending to be native, they set up sovereignty… That gives us this paradigm, or, like, the pretext of the idea of Americanism, patriotism. All of these things are ideas to make you invest in the idea that this landmass is actually the United States of America.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (10:25)

• On Tourism-Driven Reconstruction:
  “It would almost be as though the city is then tailored for tourists as opposed to residents.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (18:16)

• On Predictable Disaster:
  “We can predict that colonialism not just causes disasters, but it causes disasters that we can foreshadow what those disasters are.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (28:17)

• On Policing as Colonial Violence:
  “Let’s talk about how policing is a colonial violence. A colonial form of violence. On whose grounds are you policing?”
  — Cassandra Shepard (33:13)

• On Future Horizons:
  “As we heal the people, we heal the land, and as we heal the land, we heal the people... We need a decoloniality that addresses land, environment and people, and also justice, reparations, restorative justice.”
  — Cassandra Shepard (44:09)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Discussion Topic | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:21 | Origins, motivation, and framework of the book | | 06:15 | Disaster capitalism vs. settler colonial disaster | | 08:32 | Defining settler colonialism and geography | | 16:00 | Critique of tourism-focused post-Katrina reconstruction | | 21:34 | The personal story of Ms. Duplessis and the structural critique | | 30:42 | Beyoncé’s “Formation,” liberalism vs. decolonialism, and musical representation | | 36:49 | Policing, ICE, the carceral state, and current local dynamics | | 43:13 | What a truly liberatory post-Katrina rebuild could look like (“decolonization”) | | 47:14 | On the next book project and book’s future directions |

Conclusion

Cassandra Shepard’s Settler Colonialism is the Disaster is a deeply interdisciplinary, structural, and lived critique of disaster in New Orleans. Blending theory and narrative, personal testimony and political analysis, the book insists that we confront not only the aftermath of disasters like Katrina and COVID-19, but the settler colonial structures that produce and perpetuate these crises. Shepard’s vision is ultimately one of decolonial transformation—for New Orleans and beyond.