News: Culture & Society
To defend democracy and advance racial justice
October 22, 2020Amid the present political turmoil and the heightened risks of civil violence, we feel called to take action to protect our democratic freedoms and the […]
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 […]