From COVID to climate-change-induced wildfires and hurricanes, we live in an era when catastrophes have become the new normal. But even though these events affect us all, some members of society are more vulnerable to harm than others. 
 
This essay collection explores how the definition of catastrophe might be expanded to include many forms of large-scale structural violence on communities, species, and ecosystems. Using feminist methodologies, the contributors to Public Catastrophes, Private Losses trace the connections between seemingly unrelated forms of violence such as structural racism, environmental degradation, and public health crises. In contrast to a news media that focuses on mass fatalities and immediate consequences, these essays call our attention to how catastrophes can also involve slow violence with long-term effects. 
 
The authors also consider how these catastrophes are profoundly shaped by government action or inaction, offering a powerful critique of how government neglect has cost lives and demonstrating how vulnerable populations can be better protected. The essays in this collection examine how public catastrophes imprint themselves on lives, as individuals and communities narrate, process, and grapple with legacies of loss. The book is thus a feminist intervention that challenges the binary between public and private, personal and political.

SARAH TOBIAS is executive director of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University. A feminist political theorist, she recently co-edited The Perils of Populism and Feeling Democracy: Emotional Politics in the New Millennium, both from Rutgers University Press.
 
ARLENE STEIN is distinguished professor of sociology at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, sexuality, culture, and politics. She is the author or editor of nine books, including Unbound: Transgender Men and the Transformation of Identity and Reluctant Witnesses: Survivors, Their Children, and the Rise of Holocaust Consciousness.

Introduction   
1. Labor of Loss: Climate Change and the Emerging Economy of Care and Repair by Naomi Klein              
2. Slavery’s Shadows: The Afterlife of Dispossession by Marisa J. Fuentes, Christina Sharpe, and Michelle Commander            
3. The Cruelty is the Point: Women and Children as Weapons in the War on Drugs by Jennifer Flynn Walker and Bela August Walker
4. Memories of Two Pandemics by Marcia M. Gallo and Carmen Vázquez                     
5. Skin and Screen: A Collaborative Take on Touch in the Time of COVID by Kathleen C. Riley, Smruthi Bala Kannan, Stacy S. Klein, Ellen Malenas Ledoux, Basuli Deb, and Leslye Amede Obiora                                      
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments  
Index

Introduction 1
sarah tobias and arlene stein
1. Labor
of Loss: Climate Change and the
Emerging Economy of Care and Repair 29
naomi klein
2. Slavery’s Shadows: The Afterlife of
Dispossession 42
marisa j. fuentes, christina sharpe, and
michelle commander
3. The Cruelty Is the Point: Women
and Children
as Weapons in the War on Drugs 67
jennifer flynn walker and bela august walker
4. Memories of Two Pandemics 104
marcia m. gallo and carmen vázquez
5. Skin and Screen: A Collaborative Take on
Touch in the Time of COVID 142
kathleen c. riley, smruthi bala
kannan,
stacy s. klein, ellen malenas ledoux,
basuli deb, and l. amede obiora
Acknowledgments
175
Notes on Contributors 177
Index 000