News: Culture & Society
Rethinking independence, adulthood, and dignity amid a pandemic
October 22, 2020In my years conducting fieldwork on and with families in north India, interlocutors often ask me if parents in the United States really kick their […]
On the essence of things and the necessity of persons
September 3, 2020Many years ago, I attended a philosophy seminar as a teaching assistant. We were reading texts written by John Duns Scotus, the famous Franciscan theologian […]
B/black, W/white, and the privilege of the storyteller
August 28, 2020Unfolding in communication circles right now is a contentious debate over how and when to capitalize words. The very fact that I write this acknowledges […]
“Seeing-as”
July 10, 2020An outcry In a particularly disturbing scene in J.M. Coetzee’s novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, the protagonist defends four prisoners who are about to be […]
In The Media
‘Their stories should be told right’: how museums are documenting the protests
July 7, 2020In a recent Guardian article, Maggie Shum, research associate for the Master of Global Affairs program, called for proper and respectful preservation of Black Lives […]
Seeing clearly during a pandemic
June 18, 2020“Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get to the real meaning […]
In The Media
My country, torn and on fire
June 3, 2020In an op-ed for Frankfurter Allgemeine, Professor of the Humanities William Donahue writes about racial justice in America and raises the question, “What will my children […]