Nixon’s groundbreaking Slow Violence published in Italian

Excerpts from Professor Rob Nixon’s groundbreaking book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard University Press, 2013) have just been published in an Italian edition by Wetlands Press in Venice: Slow Violence. Il tempo della giustizia ambientale. This new edition is enriched by Nixon’s 2024 Yale Tanner Lectures as well as previously unpublished essays on environmental justice, representation, and the politics of ecological degradation. Translated by Luca Cosentino, this edition brings Nixon’s fresh reflections on the intersections of ecology, equity, and power, and extends the global reach of Nixon’s scholarship.

First published over a decade ago, Slow Violence has become a seminal work in environmental thought, establishing a powerful framework for understanding how gradual, accumulative harm to ecosystems and people can evade immediate visibility even while profoundly shaping the lives of the most vulnerable. The book introduced the now-widely-used concept of “slow violence” to describe environmental and social harms that unfold over time and across space, especially in contexts of extraction, contamination, and displacement. In recognition of its transformative insight and interdisciplinary reach, the book has received multiple honors, including the American Book Award, the International Studies Association’s Sprout Award for best book in environmental studies, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Award, and the ASLE Award for environmental literary studies.

Nixon is the Thomas A. and Currie C. Barron Family Professor in Humanities and the Environment at Princeton, where he teaches creative nonfiction and environmental studies. A prolific writer, Nixon’s essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and more. His work, grounded in his early activism in the struggle against apartheid, and his ongoing engagement with environmental justice continue to invite readers and scholars to understand forms of resilience that shape our ecological future. Nixon has been awarded an NEH, a Fulbright, a Guggenheim, and a MacArthur Foundation International Peace and Security Fellowship.