“Still It Makes Me Laugh, No Time to Die”: Methodological Reflections on Oxford Street
In responding to several commentaries on his book, Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism, the author calls upon autobiographical memories and probes their relation to fieldwork and translational transactions between various languages, pointing out that there are no easy or single sources for entextualized anecdotes or slogans.
Más Arte Más Acción: Utopia’s 500th
This essay presents the work of Más Arte Más Acción, a UK–Colombian non-profit cultural foundation set up in 2009 by visual artist Fernando Arias and cultural manager Jonathan Colin.
The Health Humanities and the Future of Publishing
This paper discusses the evolution of the field of Health Humanities and examines the effects that changes in publishing may hold for its continued development, including open access, pre-print servers, textbooks, ebooks, blogs, and other innovations that might presage a non-print—and even post-text—future.
Los intelectuales africanos ante el fenómeno de las dictaduras
A menudo me preguntan para qué sirve la literatura en las sociedades africanas. Desde fuera, resultan incomprensibles tantas horas de…
Breath, Body and Voice Gala Concert: Stephen Jaffe’s “Migrations”
Breath, Body and Voice Gala Concert, Part Two: poet Nikki Finney’s A New Day Dawns and composer Stephen Jaffe’s Migrations…
Achille Mbembe, Future Knowledges & the Dilemmas of Decolonization
In this “at large” Humanities Futures talk, philosopher Achille Mbembe considers the possibilities of a new planetary configuration of the…
Donna Haraway | Making OddKin: Telling Stories for Earthly Survival
Multispecies environmental and reproductive justice must be practiced against human exceptionalism and in resistance to colonial capitalist divisions of species,…
Health, Loss, and the Biopolitical Distribution of Affect
This panel from the Health Humanities & Social Justice Breath, Body, Voice Conference at Duke University dealt with health, the…
Nikky Finney: Sipping Kerosene at the Refectory
Famed poet Nikky Finney kicked off our Health Humanities & Social Justice Breath, Body, Voice Conference with a reading from…
Medical Memoirs and Social Agency in Planetary Perspective
In this panel discussion, WiSER Institute colleagues Achille Mbembe (Author, Philosopher) and Nolwazi Mkhwanazi (Senior Lecturer in Anthropology), are joined…
Cosmographic Experiments: Thinking, Doing, and Being with Classical Chinese Medicine
In questioning the status of materialist theory and the process of theorization in traditional Chinese medicine, and in postsocialist life more broadly speaking, classical Chinese medicine advocates imagine nondialectical materialisms as immanent ways of thinking, doing, and being in the world.
"Illuminating the Hole": Kinshasa’s Makeovers Between Dream and Reality
I examine the history of modern urban planning ideas and makeover models in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congo, with specific reference to the career of Pume Bylex. These proposed and attempted makeovers are looked at in the historical, cultural, and social context of Kinshasa itself, specifically regarding its colonial past, its prevailing mysticism, and its residents’ collective yearning for a dream city and a utopia that removes them from the reality of the actual city and nation they inhabit.
Genetic Origami in Asian Experiments
How can the humanities and social sciences can be blended in a contemporary inquiry into the flow of bioscience to sites in Asia?
Environmental Activism in the Middle East: Prospects and Challenges
The 2011 uprisings in the Arab world catalyzed scholarly interest in developing a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of…
What Water Teaches: Wissenschaft in the Age of Sea Level Rise
Does the sense of urgency occasioned by global warming and sea level rise have the power to reshape the humanities? Insofar as sea level rise will affect thousands of institutions of education and culture in coastal cities, the answer is yes.
Don’t Breathe a Word: A Psychoanalysis of Medicine’s Inflations
Modern medicine has achieved great things but, like all institutions, it has significant flaws. Medicine’s major flaw is inflation, appearing in a variety of guises and intensities as the following: overconfidence, arrogance, self-importance, narcissism, authoritarianism, impulsivity or lack of reflection, fear of failure, intolerance of ambiguity, and overdeterminism.
Persian Literature and Educating the Whole Person
I suggest that students can learn to use emotional and aesthetic intelligence as a means of living healthier and more balanced lives and that ancient artistic and literary masterpieces are intellectual tools that revive and nourish our ability to pause, look closely, and ponder. I further suggest that, more often than not, seeking questions is more important than finding answers.
Re-Urbanism in Africa: Frictionless Utopias for the Contemporary Urban Age
Following an introduction to the concept of the "parallel city" or "satellite city," this essay reviews a variety of examples, including city-building projects in Lagos, Morocco, Mauritius, Ghana, and Uganda.
From Colonial Medicine to International Health in East Asia
This essay examines in depth the history of colonial medicine in East Asia and its transition to an international health initiative.
Toward Global Histories of Pharmaceuticals in East Asia
This brief essay considers the history of pharmaceuticals in East Asia. It begins with a discussion of the burgeoning popularity of cultural and social histories of modern medicine in East Asia, and it describes the benefits and potential pitfalls of examining medicines as commodities.
Remapping Sound Studies
The authors argue that this project necessitates asking different sorts of questions than have been typically asked in sound studies, and they contend that this change will in turn require broadening the purview of sound studies because it will challenge some of the field’s central presuppositions.
Explorations in Islamic Feminist Epistemology
Responsive to Elizabeth Castelli’s (2001) call to "trouble" and destabilize our categories of analysis in the study of religion and gender, this paper explores the feminist epistemological category of "experience," particularly as it relates to the study of Islam and Muslim societies.
The Future of Political Theory: The Normative Science of Politics
This essay examines the contrasts between political theory and political science, with a view toward the future trends of the two in relation to one another in the twenty-first century. The author ventures to make three predictions and invites readers to offer their own insights in response.
African Intellectuals in the Face of the Phenomenon of Dictatorship
Given the current political climate, this paper insists that we recognize the work of Africans who strove to counter totalitarianism throughout the twentieth century. Starting with the Fifth Pan-African Conference in 1945, it brings to light the contributions of African thinkers, writers, and artists who dedicated themselves to resistance in the form of creative production.
Thinking "Global Blackness" Through the Frame of Angelus Novus: An Exploration of Racial Aporias and the Politics of Modern Power, Sovereignty, and Temporality
In this exploratory essay, I would like to offer a way of thinking about the generative processes inherent in the formation of modern power that bring about and sustain a globalizing "blackness."
