The Monthly Digest is a resource provided by Security in Context that provides a list of recent publications, calls, conferences and other items relevant to the critical global, security, and international political economy studies audience. In addition to new items, our digest may contain relatively recent entries, so please double check dates on any calls or conferences. All descriptions taken from their original sources unless otherwise indicated. If we’ve missed something, or you have items you’d like to contribute for future digests, please email us at: submissions@securityincontext.org
Books
Epidemic Politics in Contemporary Vietnam, Public Health and the State
Through a tumultuous 20th-century period of revolution and foreign wars, Vietnam's public health system was praised by international observers as a “bright light in an epidemiologically dark world,” standing out for its accomplishments in infectious disease control. Since the country's transition to a “market economy with socialist orientation” in the mid-1980s, however, some of these achievements have been reversed as the “renovation” of national systems for welfare and health leaves gaps in the social safety net. A series of cholera outbreaks that spread through Northern Vietnam in 2007-2010 revealed the paradoxes, contradictions, and challenges that Vietnam faces in its post-transition period.
This book presents an anthropological analysis of the political, economic, and infrastructural inputs to these epidemics and suggests how the most commonly repeated accounts of disease spread misdirected public attention and suppressed awareness of risk factors in Vietnam's capital. Drawing a parallel to the experience of novel coronavirus in Asia and beyond, this book reflects on how political priorities, economic forces, and cultural struggles influence the experience and the epidemiology of infectious disease.
Gendered Resistance , Second Publication
The Gendered Resistance publication is a product of the New Paradigms Factory, an (Arab Council for Social Sciences) ACSS writing fellowship program that trains activists and junior researchers in Arab countries to write for a diverse audience.
Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance
Forward by Ananya Roy & Chris Carlsson
Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance brings together cartography, essays, illustrations, poetry, and more in order to depict gentrification and resistance struggles from across the San Francisco Bay Area and act as a roadmap to counter-hegemonic knowledge making and activism. Compiled by the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, each chapter reflects different frameworks for understanding the Bay Area’s ongoing urban upheaval, including evictions, indigenous geographies, health and environmental racism, state violence, transportation and infrastructure, migration and relocation, and speculative futures. By weaving these themes together, Counterpoints expands normative urban-studies framings of gentrification to consider more complex, regional, historically grounded, and entangled horizons for understanding the present. Understanding the tech boom and its effects means looking beyond San Francisco’s borders to consider the region as a socially, economically, and politically interconnected whole and reckoning with the area’s deep history of displacement, going back to its first moments of settler colonialism. Counterpoints combines the project's work with contributions by community partners, from longtime community members who have fought multiple waves of racial dispossession to elementary school youth envisioning decolonial futures. In this way, Counterpoints is a collaborative, co-created atlas aimed at expanding knowledge on displacement and resistance in the Bay Area with, rather than for or about, those most impacted.
Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile
'A vivid, inspiring and sometimes poetic history of modern Iraq' - Miriam Cooke
Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, many Iraqi academics were assassinated. Countless others received bullets in envelopes and instructions to leave their institutions (and in many cases the country) or get killed. Many heeded the warning and fled into exile.
Having played such a pivotal role in shaping post-independence Iraqi society, the exile and internal displacement of its academics has had a profound impact. Tracing the academic, political and social lives of 63 academics, Bullets in Envelopes offers a 'genealogy of loss', and a groundbreaking appraisal of the dismantling and restructuring of Iraqi institutions, culture and society.
Through extensive fieldwork in the UK, Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan, Louis Yako shows the human side of the destructive 2003 occupation, and asks us to imagine a better future.
Scholarships/Fellowships
New Paradigms Factory | Cycle 5
Theme: Gendered Resistance: Ethical Practices in Oral Narratives
Writing fellowships for scholars and activists in the Arab region
Deadline extended until October 21, 2021.
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is pleased to launch the fifth cycle of its New Paradigms Factory Program (NPF). The theme for this cycle is “Gendered Resistance: Ethical Practices in Oral Narratives”.
The NPF is a writing fellowship that aims at facilitating and supporting writing and publishing by activists and junior scholars. The NPF program is particularly interested in attracting activists and junior scholars from the Arab region who wish to write research-based essays targeting diverse academic and non-academic audiences, including activists, policy makers and/or the general public.
The NPF writing fellowship will support around twelve fellows residing in the Arab region. Selected fellows will be mentored by experienced activist-scholars for the writing and publishing of essays that critically reflect on dominant debates and offer alternative paradigms on the theme of Gendered Resistance while also reflecting on the ethical issues in oral narratives.
The NPF program aims at publishing the fellows’ essays in an ACSS special volume on gendered resistance. Two publications were produced from the program. In 2019, the ACSS published the essays of the NPF fellows from cycle 3 in its first issue titled “Gendered Resistance”, and in 2021, fellows from cycle 4 will publish their essays in the second issue on Gendered Resistance.
This program is funded by a grant provided to the ACSS by the Open Society Foundation and supplemental funds from the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Articles & Journals
By Sandrine Kott and Cyrus Schayegh
The aim of this special issue is to study the Middle East and Eastern Europe, including South-Eastern Europe, as one interwoven space and to use it as a laboratory to explore conceptual issues regarding modern societal transnational and state international history. A substantive introduction, by the co-editors, sorts and explains the changing relations and perceptions between the various states of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, including Russia/the Soviet Union. This introduction highlights two patterns: similarly ethno-religious-linguistically heterogeneous populations and shared peripherality vis-à-vis Western Europe. The question of interplays and overlaps between nation states and empires and the proximity between Eastern Europe and the Middle East cut across these two patterns, constituting a broader framework.
The special issue covers the time from the nineteenth century to the Cold War, teasing out not only changes but also important continuities, and hence resituating the Cold War. Eight articles covering a century of history develop specific aspects of these relationship and perceptions between empires, countries and social groups in this space. They focus on Ottoman–Austria-Hungarian interrelations, the post-First World War Northern Tier, Zionist networks between the Yishuv, in Palestine, and Eastern Europe, the role of oil in relations specially between Yugoslavia and Middle Eastern countries, Eastern European architects working in the Middle East and Eastern Europe’s unequal integration in an again globalising world economy, patterns of Soviet orientalism, an East German mission to Syria as an example of how some Eastern European states sought the role of more developed cousins vis-à-vis the Middle East and, last but not least, the centrality of education in the political economy of Eastern European relations with the Middle East.
Why are you still not partying? Politics of transgression and COVID-19 in Brazil
"This brief exploration focuses on a perhaps more elusive and implicit kind of shock incited by the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ll explore the politics of transgressing the norms, laws and restrictions put into effect by governments attempting to contain the novel coronavirus’ spreading, with the discussion focusing on the nightlife that emerged not besides, but because of the pandemic, and the affective dimension it entails. To accomplish this, I locate myself where some of the most obscene scenes, numbers and failures that bear the hallmark of COVID-19 have been appearing, Brazil. This way, I underline the enduring effects of colonialism and racism in the Brazilian case when it comes to obtaining enjoyment and the right to transgress."
By Martina Tazzioli
This article explores the technologies and apps that asylum seekers need to navigate as forced hindered techno-users in order to get access to asylum and financial support. With a focus on the Greek refugee system, it discusses the multiple technological intermediations that asylum seekers face when dealing with the cash assistance programme and how asylum seekers are obstructed in accessing asylum and financial support. It explores the widespread disorientation that asylum seekers experience as they navigate un-legible techno-scripts that change over time. The article critically engages with the literature on the securitization and victimization of refugees, and it argues that asylum seekers are not treated exclusively as potential threats or as victims, but also as forced hindered subjects; that is, they are kept in a condition of protracted uncertainty during which they must find out the multiple technological and bureaucratic steps they are requested to comply with. In the final section, the article illustrates how forced technological mediations actually reinforce asylum seekers’ dependence on humanitarian actors and enhance socio-legal precarity.
Lectures & Webinars
Post-Colonial Legality and Human Rights
September 13, 2021, 12:00 pm (EST)
Speaker: prof. Abdullahi An-Naim, Emory University, School of law.
Register at: https://go.rutgers.edu/nklp4kcl
Live-streamed at Facebook.com/RUCSRR
Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts Against Domestic Violence
October 11, 2021, 12:00 pm (est).
Speaker: prof. Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Register at: https://go.rutgers.edu/nklp4kc
Live-streamed at Facebook.com/RUCSRR
Job Openings
Tenure-Track Faculty Position in International Relations, Human Security, Bucknell University
The Department of International Relations at Bucknell University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position to begin in August 2022. We expect to hire at the assistant professor level. We seek a teacher-scholar with a Ph.D. degree in International Relations, Environmental Studies, International Development, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, or other relevant disciplines by the start of the appointment. Candidates in the final stages of completing their degree requirements, with a defense date by August 2022, will be considered.
We welcome candidates who demonstrate excellence in reflective multicultural and inclusive teaching practices and who display a strong commitment to collaboration and interdisciplinarity. The successful candidate will teach five courses per year, develop a strong body of scholarship in their field of specialization, and participate in service activities at department, college, and university levels or at wider academic community.
We are seeking a candidate whose teaching and research interests are in human security, including but not limited to global public health, international peace and conflict resolution, disaster management, peacebuilding, economic security, environmental security, food security, humanitarian assistance and relief, and nongovernmental organizations. The selected candidate should be able to teach courses on Human Security and Globalization as well as electives related to various aspects of human security. They may also be asked to teach a first-year foundation seminar and/or a senior seminar. A regional focus that complements our existing faculty's research interests will be an asset. We seek a candidate who has a commitment to diversity and high impact educational practices (writing intensive courses, interdisciplinary courses, experiential learning, etc.) that would appeal to a broad university audience.
Archaeologist, American Center of Research
The American Center of Research (formerly the American Center of Oriental Research), a nonprofit institution dedicated to advancing knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected Middle East, past and present, seeks an Archaeologist. This new full-time position, resident in Amman, Jordan, is intended to assist the organization in the implementation of its mission and work toward future growth. The position reports to the Associate Director.
The candidate is expected to assist ACOR in seeing its legacy projects to publication while leading a new initiative to engage a wide swath of students and the public in archaeological and heritage-based activities. They will be responsible for oversight of ACOR’s artifact holdings and for recruiting and engaging fellows, students, and external scholars in their studies and analyses. The candidate should thus be familiar with current trends of study and be able to articulate how ACOR, its projects, and its collections can engage in this exchange. The candidate may also assist ACOR-affiliated projects.
The candidate will manage research, fieldwork, and monitoring, seek laboratory analyses, and engage in the preparation of reports (especially for Jordanian governmental entities and peer reviewed publications). They will also provide outreach and instruction in archaeological and heritage preservation methods to members of the public, students, volunteers, and varied audiences of all ages, nationalities, and abilities.
Project Director, American Center of Research
The American Center of Research, a nonprofit institution dedicated to advancing knowledge of Jordan past and present, seeks a Project Director for its collaborative effort to help support and develop the division of the Department of Antiquities that addresses illicit smuggling and stolen antiquities. This two-year project is fundamentally a training and materials-development initiative, undertaken in partnership with several entities of the governments of Jordan and the United States. While the position is expected to be primarily resident in Amman, Jordan, work may begin remotely from anywhere in the world. The position will report to the Associate Director for Projects; compensation will be based on experience. Continued employment with ACOR beyond the term of the project is possible.
Candidates with a terminal degree focusing on antiquities, antiquities law, archaeology, cultural heritage, curation/museums, heritage management, or similar of the Near or Middle Eastern region are preferred, but anyone with sufficient relevant experience will be considered. (For best consideration, cover letters should state and explain such experience clearly.) Knowledge of and experience in the archaeological and museological spheres of Jordan or the MENA region is preferred but not required; experience working with or implementing a bilateral Cultural Property Agreement/MOU for any country would be valuable. A demonstrated capacity for the timely completion of complex tasks is required. Fluency in spoken and written English is required and conversational Arabic is desired.
The successful candidate will be the primary point of contact for and designer, implementer, and administrator of most aspects of this project, particularly the development of an online training course, manual for future implementation of trainings, and field toolkits, as well as for ensuring an active social media presence of the project. ACOR staff will provide considerable assistance. Some travel within Jordan will be required. The Project Director is expected to work closely with the Associate Director, local authorities, and other stakeholders to ensure completion of project objectives.
Interviews
Louis Yako, Bullets in Envelopes: Iraqi Academics in Exile (New Texts Out Now)
An excerpt from the interview:
Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book?
Louis Yako (LY): This book was originally my doctorate dissertation while completing my PhD in cultural anthropology at Duke University. The multiple reasons for writing this book are precisely the reasons for why I believe it should be read, and by whom. The first is general and applies to any work I have written or will write in the future: the decolonial way of life is central to my writing, thinking, and living. In 1981, speaking at the annual meeting of the Ohio Arts Council, the late novelist Toni Morrison said: “If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Morrison’s words capture the possibilities available to any writer who wants to contribute to knowledge production on their own terms, despite the colonial constraints that seek to impede, silence, or erase such works and stories.
