Symposium papers are now available here. Please email us for the password.

By “just law” we refer not just to law, but to the ambivalent relationship between law and justice. International law can be characterized as both constitutive of imperialism and a necessary context for certain forms of emancipatory political expression, a tension expressed through the contested claims for legal frameworks such as human rights, transitional justice, and just war. What is the work that these concepts do, and what do they tell us about the status of sovereignty and legitimacy in our world today? Does international law simply reflect the expedient interests of world powers, or does it retain a degree of autonomy for thinking about alternative global futures?

The Just Law symposium will provide a number of perspectives on these questions, as we consider claims from the past, interventions in the present, and orientations toward the future. New work from young scholars will be featured in conversation with select faculty whose own work has informed our seminar in the past. Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Talal Asad will provide a keynote address. All events are free and open to the public.

 
Schedule of events

Thursday, May 3    6:30pm in James Gallery

Welcome                   Gary Wilder, Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Keynote Address     Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, CUNY
                                    Graduate Center

There will be a wine and cheese reception in Room 5109 following Prof. Asad’s talk

 
Friday, May 4          10:30am in James Gallery

Introductory Remarks     Mark Drury and Neil Agarwal, PhD students in                                               Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 
Panel 1                          10:30 – 12:15pm in James Gallery

Amiel Melnick, PhD student in Anthropology, Columbia University
“Detainees, Heroes, Ghosts: the Mau Mau Reparations Claim”

Shea McManus, PhD candidate, CUNY Anthropology
“Mobilizing Mothers: Humanitarianism, Transitional Justice, and International Law in Lebanon”

Discussant: Mandana Limbert, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Queens College

 
Please join us for lunch from 12:30 – 2:00pm @ 8th floor dining commons
 

Panel 2                          2:00 – 3:45pm in James Gallery

Kareem Rabie, PhD candidate, CUNY Anthropology
“The Illegal Overtaking of Land: Human Rights and the Settler Opposition to Palestinian Building in the West Bank”

Jeremy Rayner, PhD candidate, CUNY Anthropology
“Contesting the ‘Social State of Law’: Neoliberalism and Popular Sovereignty in Costa Rica”

Discussant: Sujatha Fernandes, Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College

 
Panel 3                          4:00 – 5:45pm in Room 5307

Anjuli Raza Kolb, PhD candidate in English, Columbia University
“A So-Called Viral Sovereignty: Global Health, International Law, and ‘Figures’ of Speech”

Jini Kim Watson, Assistant Professor of English, Comparative Literature, NYU
“‘We want you to ask us first’: Development, International Aid and the Politics of Indebtedness”

Discussant: Kandice Chuh, Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center

 
Following the final panel, there will be an informal reception in Room 5109.

 
Symposium papers are now available here. Please email us for the password.