Q: When we abduct, imprison, torture, or force another person by violence and credible threats of violence to do our bidding, are we engaging in acts of a) dehumanization, b) demonization, or c) dis-humanization?
Think hard, because a lot depends on the answer.
Given the current interest in "human dignity" -- which I have canvassed elsewhere -- a number of people are interested in why it became canonized in the first place.
The authors provide a commentary on Greg Constantine's photographs.
There are two sets of ghosts that we experience when visiting and engaging with field sites. The more obvious are the people whose worlds we seek to study, such as empirical ghosts. The other is the philosophical ghost, which underpins how we approach a particular point of enquiry. This latter ghost travels with us to the field, resting on our observations and indeed guiding how we see. But which “field ghost” remains to sculpt our knowledge, guiding the essence of our study?
In the summer of 2011, I made a day trip to the Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen memorial museum on the grounds of a former Nazi concentration camp and later Soviet detention center. Like many others, I think, I had wanted to see a former concentration camp for some time for vague, hard-to-articulate feelings. What would I feel while on site? What of the physical grounds remained in place? Which narratives were emphasized and which relegated to the periphery?
Forty-nine years ago today, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, gunmen opened fire on the African-American activist Malcolm X, killing him almost instantly. He was 39 years old. By the time of his murder, Malcolm had become an isolated figure in American life. He spent most of the last year of his life either abroad (in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe) or preparing to go abroad.
The Berkeley Human Rights Program has announced a postdoctoral fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year. Applicants should currently be engaged in research on the historical and theoretical foundations of human rights. Applications are due February 10 via an online system. Additional information about the position and application process can be found at https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00344.
Crossposted from the new blog Humanitarianism and Human Rights:
Tobias Kelly discusses recent works on torture.
Watch the video commentary on issue 4.3's visual citizenship dossier.
