Online Features

Reparations and the Human

Social Text Collective

A Lecture by David L. Eng
September 28, Wednesday
6:30 to 8 pm

This presentation explores the relationship between political and psychic genealogies of reparation. Reparation is a key term in political theory, but it is also a central concept in psychoanalysis (specifically object relations theory), yet the two are rarely discussed in relation to one another. In this talk, I will explore how political and psychic genealogies of reparation might supplement one another in theories of the human and discourses of human rights, while helping us to understand better the social and psychic limits of repairing war, violence, colonialism, and genocide.

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Saher Shah: Object Anxiety

Social Text Collective

Saher Shah, whose art is on the cover of Social Text #108, is having a solo exhibition at Scaramouche gallery in New York between now and October 30, 2011. From the gallery:

Featuring a collection of drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptural
works, “Object Anxiety” continues the artist’s exploration of
architectural modernism, specifically, new Brutalism’s engineered social
spaces and urban environments.

Click here for more information.

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Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor: An Interview with Rob Nixon

Ashley Dawson

Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor was published this spring by Harvard University Press. Nixon’s work has been crucial to articulating the conjunction — as well as the fault lines — between postcolonial studies and ecocriticism. … Continue reading “Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor: An Interview with Rob Nixon”

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Made in Havana City

Sujatha Fernandes

Onstage is Instinto, a female trio extraordinaire. The divas are wearing shimmering strapless dresses with high heels. As a salsa beat kicks in, they rap in a lyrical prose, spin on their heels, and sing in three part harmony. This … Continue reading “Made in Havana City”

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London Calling…

Tariq Jazeel

It’s difficult to know how to begin to write about the last few days here in the UK. The disturbances — shall we call them ‘riots’, ‘protests’, ‘unrest’, ‘civil disobedience’, ‘mob violence’? — that started last Saturday in Tottenham, just … Continue reading “London Calling…”

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Eric Stanley interview on KPFA radio

Social Text Collective

Listen to an interview with Eric Stanley about his article “Near Life, Queer Death: Overkill and Ontological Capture” from Social Text 107, our current issue. His article is a fascinating interrogation of how queer ontology and violence against queers can be seen as a constitutive part of liberal democracy. He offers the concept overkill to denote the type of violence against queers which goes beyond death.

KPFA radio is a listener-funded progressive talk and music radio station broadcast from Berkeley, California. Stanley will appear on Against the Grain, a program dedicated to in-depth analysis and commentary on issues important to progressive and radical thinking. The program is co-hosted and co-produced by Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong.

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History is what the Present is made of

Michael Mandiberg

An Interview with Matthew Frye Jacobson.

Michael Mandiberg: So tell us about the Historian’s Eye project…

Matthew Frye Jacobson: This started for me back in about 2007-2008. I was trying to think about different ways of getting intellectual work out in the world, continuous with all the writing I’ve done but in a different register. Read more

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Postcard: Expo 2010, Shanghai

Aubrey Anable

Last July, in the midst of a brutal heat wave, we visited the World Exposition in Shanghai. This was the first world’s fair ever hosted by the People’s Republic of China, and its government reportedly spent over $50 billion on the event, nearly twice the amount it spent on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Given the sheer spectacle and diplomatic value of the games, and how little attention the 2010 Expo garnered in the U.S., this sum is staggering.

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