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1/15 NEW(ish) articles+special issue: @liana_chua and I co-edited WITNESSING: TRUTHS, TECHNOLOGIES, TRANSFORMATIONS now out and #openaccess on The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (props to @BerghahnAnthro ) See here:
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja.39.issue-1.xml
(thread)
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja.39.issue-1.xml
(thread)
2/15 it all started with a wonderful panel Liana organized at the 2018 @RoyalAnthro conference, and i'm happy and honored to have taken part. Liana's great thread overviewed the issue:
https://twitter.com/liana_chua/status/1375396229656494082
So i won't repeat the summary of research articles, other than mine...
https://twitter.com/liana_chua/status/1375396229656494082
So i won't repeat the summary of research articles, other than mine...
3/15 But first, on the issue's conceptual significance. Part of my excitement about this project is because, as far as I know, this is the first #anthropology collection dedicated specifically to witnessing, and/or testimony. our Intro contextualizes... https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390102.xml
4/15 the issue in relation to several dominant #anthro subfields and themes that do intersect with witnessing, while pointing out that it is important - and makes lots of sense - for anthropologists to engage with witnessing in an explicit, more thorough manner.
5/15 our issue also includes a wonderful "virtual conversation" between @AsaleAngelAjani Meg McLagan, and Carolyn Dean, who explore the contemporary witnessing-related challenges between research and practice. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390109.xml
6/15 i hope that the intro, virtual conversation, & the issue's articles help other scholars situate their research with more nuance and focus, relating to both the anthropology of witnessing and the myriad interdisciplinary paths it makes possible. these are already explored...
7/15 in @naisargindave 's beautiful Afterword. turning to film and literature, Dave challenges the epistemics (sensory and political preconceptions) of what *is* witnessing and what it can(not) be.
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390110.xml
I also highly recommend Naisargi's earlier writing...
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390110.xml
I also highly recommend Naisargi's earlier writing...
8/15 specifically "Witness: Humans, Animals, and the Politics of Becoming" - a brilliant text published in @culanth
https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca29.3.01
which, my own article was greatly influenced by...
https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/ca29.3.01
which, my own article was greatly influenced by...
9/15 My article in the issue is titled Witnessing and Testimony as Event: Israeli NGOs, Palestinian Witnesses, and the Undoing of Human Rights Bureaucracy.
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390107.xml
it considers witnessing and testimony through both a foundational event, and as a process...
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/cja/39/1/cja390107.xml
it considers witnessing and testimony through both a foundational event, and as a process...
10/15 that foundational event isnt just the violence testified about, but rather the space-time stretch in which witnessing transforms into testimony - in the context of Israeli anti-occupation NGOs, this is when a Palestinian witness narrates their experience of violence and...
11/15 an NGO fieldworker writes it down as a text document. following Dave and several major threads of anthro research, i suggest a synchronic reading of witnessing/testimony - rather than focus on the text and its dissemination, or the macro-scale political reverberations...
12/15 of witness subject-positions, my ethnography focuses on the interactional, reciprocal negotiations that take place within often overlooked temporal stretch and spatial setting of the initial writing of witnessing as testimony document...
13/15 these events are, certainly, shaped by varied socio-cultural, political influences, but the event itself entails complex dynamics that are usually excluded from textual representation. nothing shady, to be clear, but testimony does not reflect the event of its production...
14/15 the point is that it is difficult to understand the persistent significances of witnessing/testimony - and human rights work more broadly - without paying attention to the societal dynamics that occur throughout the production of witnessing/testimony.
15/15 props to @eraycayli @kaisirlin @Val_Haensch @fryer_moreira who contributed great articles to the collection, and thanks again to Liana for everything. FIN
