Politics

  • On paths not taken

    On paths not taken

    « Genocide Studies » is a house with many rooms. It accommodates and even encourages a broadening of its central concept. And like all academic fields, it presumes its object of study will always be there.

  • The prodigal half-rooster

    The prodigal half-rooster

    Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom and Lea Ypi’s Free spoke past one another from half a world away. But both ask whether freedoms mean anything if they are not practiced in public, and if they are not passed on — and whether the word « freedom » means anything at all.

  • Why we write

    Why we write

    A letter to George Orwell. « All narrative is hypnotic. Some narratives are more hypnotic than others. Because of you, we can be conscious of the kinds and the workings of the narratives that set out to deaden us, lessen us, make us lie, make us part of the lie. »

  • Ukraine yesterday & tomorrow

    Ukraine yesterday & tomorrow

    Ukraine didn’t become an epicenter of world history all of a sudden; it became an epicenter again.

  • Beyond thalassophobia

    Beyond thalassophobia

    German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck has more than twenty books to his name. It is tempting to read his fiction for glimpses of Green political futures, and his literary criticism for similar clues. How experimental can a literary politician be?

  • Cretan Europa’s second coming

    Cretan Europa’s second coming

    Citizen’s day in Fiesole, December 2021. In the EU, Christian Europe stands in quantum superposition, both here and not here. Can Cretan Europa help us imagine better futures?