Despite the role of legal institutions in reproducing an unequal international order, demands for global justice continue to be shaped through legal claims. Is this a necessary relationship between law and justice, or can it be imagined otherwise? Historically, the politicization of certain legal doctrines over others at particular moments has been integral to the generation of new political forms. Does this suggest an emancipatory potential for law in the pursuit of alternative political futures? We are particularly interested in these questions in relation to contemporary transformations of global capitalism and the politics of territorial sovereignty.

Selected topics include: self-determination, just war, “Responsibility to Protect,” transnational law, rights of citizenship, “failed states,” and indigenous claims.

Invited scholars for 2011-2012: Mahmood Mamdani, Nancy Fraser, Michael Ralph, and Elizabeth Povinelli.

 
Co-Chairs

Mark Drury (mdrury@gc.cuny.edu)
Doctoral student, Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

Neil Agarwal (nagarwal@gc.cuny.edu)
Doctoral student, Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

Gary Wilder (gwilder@gc.cuny.edu)
Associate Professor, Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 
Seminar Schedule

September 16 / Discussion of Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question”

Discussants: Mark Drury and Neil Agarwal, doctoral students, anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 

October 14 / Invited Scholar: Mahmood Mamdani

Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
“Beyond
 Nuremberg: 
The 
Historical 
Significance
 of 
the 
Post­ Apartheid
 Transition 
in 
South
 Africa
”
Discussant: Ahilan Kadirgamar, doctoral student, anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 

November 11 / Discussion of Emmanuel Levinas, selections

“Substitution,” “Truth of Disclosure and Truth of Testimony,” “Essence and Disinterestedness,” and “Peace and Proximity” in Basic Philosophical Writings
Discussant: Ezgi Canpolat, doctoral student, anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 

December 9 / Invited Scholar: Nancy Fraser

Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science, The New School for Social Research
“Can Society Be Commodities All the Way Down?”
Discussant: Jini Kim Watson, Assistant Professor, Depts. of English and Comparative Literature, New York University

 

February 3 / Invited Scholar: Michael Ralph

Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
“‘Life…in the midst of death’: Notes on the relationship between slave insurance and life insurance”
Discussant: Amiel Melnick, doctoral student, anthropology, Columbia University

 

March 9 / Discussion of Nasser Hussain, “Towards a Jurisprudence of Emergency”
Discussant: Mariana Assis, doctoral student, political science, The New School

 

March 23 / Discussion of Muneer Ahmad, “Resisting Guantánamo: Rights on the Brink of Dehumanization”
Discussant: Ximena García Bustamante, doctoral student, political science, CUNY Graduate Center

 

April 20 / Invited Scholar: Elizabeth Povinelli

Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
Discussant: Jay Blair, doctoral student, anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

 

May 3-4 / Just Law: Intervention, Reparation, Emancipation

A symposium at the James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center

Keynote address: Talal Asad
Distinguished Professor, Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Thursday, May 3 at 6:30pm

Daylong workshops on Friday, May 4 featuring the work of Jini Kim Watson, Amiel Melnick, Anjuli Raza Kolb, Shea McManus, Kareem Rabie, and Jeremy Rayner.