September 2020
CARGC Book Talk with Arlene Dávila
Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics by Arlene Dávila In Latinx Art Arlene Dávila draws on numerous interviews with artists, dealers, and curators to explore the problem of visualizing Latinx art and artists. Providing an inside and critical look of the global contemporary art market, Dávila's book is at once an introduction to contemporary Latinx art and a call to decolonize the art worlds and practices that erase and whitewash Latinx artists. Dávila shows the importance of race, class, and…
Find out more »October 2020
CARGC Colloquium: Seyram Avle, “China, Africa, and the Shifting Worlds of Tech Labor”
More details regarding this talk will be added soon. To learn more about Seyram Avle’s work, please visit: seyramavle.com.
Find out more »November 2020
CARGC Colloquium: Maria Repnikova, “The Fragmented Spectacle of Chinese Soft Power in Africa”
This book talk presents the multifaceted story of China’s soft power campaigns in Africa, with a special focus on Ethiopia—one of China’s closest economic and political partners on the continent. Countering the claims of China’s authoritarian export, the analysis of China’s engagement with Ethiopian elites, youth and media audiences, showcases what I describe as a “fragmented spectacle” -- a grand, but disjointed display of China’s prowess and generosity. Drawing on rich fieldwork in Ethiopia and China, the analysis illuminates the…
Find out more »December 2020
CARGC Colloquium: Hana Masri, “The Rhetoric of Waste and the Politics of Human Disposability from the Americas to the Arab World”
This presentation examines material waste's role in shaping broader discourses about which lives have value and which, like trash itself, are deemed disposable. Addressing case studies ranging from the politics of wastewater infrastructure in Gaza to migrant communities organizing against environmental racism in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to large scale uprisings against the Lebanese government spurred by its failure to manage the country's garbage, the presentation focuses on how embodied sensation, like smell, can both communicate human disposability and motivate collective…
Find out more »CARGC Book Talk with Wazmah Osman
Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists In her book Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists, Osman analyzes the impact of international funding and cross-border media flows on the national politics of Afghanistan, the region, and beyond. Fieldwork from across Afghanistan allowed Osman to record the voices of Afghan media producers and people from all sectors of society. Afghans offer their own seldom-heard views on the…
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