The resilience of settler colonialism in higher education: a case study of a western sustainability department

University-level sustainability education aims to reduce future harm to people and the planet, however, this goal is challenged by the tight relationships between Western academia and settler colonialism (SC). As a process that is predicated upon Indigenous erasure and harmful land relations, SC is antithetical to sustainability goals. This raises questions about how those responsible for providing education in this space respond to these challenges: are they reinscribing or resisting SC? How are these processes occurring? Through interviews at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, we analyse how educators are grappling with reproductions of SC while attempting Justice-Based Environmental Sustainability (JBES) education. We find primary barriers to achieving JBES and challenging SC exist individually (anxiety and discomfort) and systemically (university understandings of land, progress, and power). Using resilience as a frame of analysis points to the importance of interventions designed at the interplay of the individual and the system broadly.