Abstract: The article argues that the denial of detainee intellectual property rights at Guantánamo Bay calls attention to new modalities of fugitivity and postcolonial citizenship. Examining paintings created by current and former detainees as well as Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s redacted memoir Guantánamo Diary (2015/2017), the article poses two key questions: How do we understand the status of post-9/11 art made in captivity? And what is the significance of the claim of US state ownership over such art? Following Stephen Best’s argument that US intellectual property laws were heavily influenced by Fugitive Slave Laws, the article theorizes “detainee copyright” to spotlight the political significance of detainees’ artistic and cultural work against the state’s fear of fugitive meaning. The triangulation of intellectual property, art and life-writing, and state censorship produces the detainee’s two bodies: the material body shackled in indefinite detention and the metaphorical body demanding public circulation.
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Our long-awaited issue of Humanity journal is out! Its special dossier, Iran under Sanctions, examines the myriad and devastating impacts of international sanctions on society, culture, and politics. The issue includes an essay on the legal case Herero and Nama v. The Federal Republic of Germany to theorize reparations for German colonialism and slavery as they became linked with the aftermath of the Shoah. It also includes essays on T.H. Marshall and the right of access to justice; visual representations of Armenian genocide survivors; and, the concept of radical friendship in relation to the Farmers’ Protests in India.
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