Unforgetting Empire: Vampires and the Violence of Colonial Memory in BIPOC Speculative Fiction

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Unforgetting the Past and Re-Remembering the Future: Colonial, Postcolonial, and Historical Perspectives on Children’s Literature

Abstract

This study examines how BIPOC speculative fiction reimagines the vampire as a metaphor for colonial violence and its lingering afterlives. Analyzing Vampires of El Norte, Sinners, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and framed by Gordon’s (2011) theory of haunting, the project explores how these texts reclaim memory, resist erasure, and confront the spectral presence of empire. Through literary analysis, this work highlights the power of narrative to surface suppressed histories and cultivate critical remembrance. It argues for literature’s role in education research, not only as cultural production but as a method for exploring racial violence, survivance, and resistance. In doing so, we offer a case for genre fiction as a site of transformative learning and justice.

Authors

• Christina Salazar, Texas Woman's University

• Victor Antonio Lozada, University of North Texas - Dallas

• Cassandra Schroeder, University of Nebraska