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Book Talk: Jini Kim Watson, “Cold War Reckonings”
02/27/2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
TITLE: “Cold War Reckonings”
SPEAKER: Jini Kim Watson (New York University) and respondent Sonali Perera (Hunter College).
DATE AND TIME: Monday, February 27th, 7:15-8.30pm EST.
LOCATION: Faculty House, Columbia University (64 Morningside Drive––please note that due to repairs, you must access Faculty House from 116th Street).
The Columbia University Seminar in Literary Theory meets several times per semester to discuss new work on the relations between literature, philosophy, and politics. A paper is pre-circulated and discussed at the seminar. We invite faculty and graduate students of all institutions to attend.
The next meeting of the year will take place on Monday, February 27th at 7:15pm. We’ll be welcoming Jini Kim Watson to discuss her text, Cold War Reckonings. For our meeting, we will be reading the introduction to and the fifth chapter (“Killing Communists, Transitional Justice, and the Making of the Post-Cold War”) of the monograph.
About the speakers:
Jini Kim Watson is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University. Her first book The New Asian City (Minnesota UP, 2011) examines the rise of so-called “Asian Tiger” metropolises through the lens of colonial history, developmental imaginaries and cold war hegemonies. Her second monograph Cold War Reckonings (Fordham UP, 2021; honorable mention, ACLA’s René Wellek Prize and honorable mention, MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize) explores the way the cold war shaped both political power and cultural forms of decolonization, tracing a particular genealogy of authoritarianism in the so-called “free world.” She has also co-edited, with Gary Wilder,The Postcolonial Contemporary (Fordham UP, 2018), which thinks broadly and self-reflexively about the project of postcolonial studies. She is currently co-editing, with Ato Quayson, The Cambridge Companion to the City and World Literature (2023), a volume which examines the role of cities in conceptualizations of world literature.
Sonali Perera is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Hunter College, CUNY. She is the author of No Country: Working-Class Writing in the Age of Globalization (Columbia UP, 2014), and is currently at work on her second book, Between Imperialism and Internationalism: World Literature and Human Rights. Her work has appeared in PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America), differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society (films for the feminist classroom), and in interdisciplinary anthologies, including South Asian Feminisms (Duke UP, 2012). From 2006-2008, she served on the executive board of directors of SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together), a national non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring civil rights and social justice for marginalized members of the South Asian immigrant community in America.
We will be having dinner beforehand at Faculty House at 6pm. Although there’s no need to reserve a spot for the talk, please try to e-mail Connor Spencer by the end of the day today at the latest if you would like to come to dinner. Reservations must be made in advance, and there is no promise that last-minute requests to join dinner will be accommodated.
Please note: Faculty House has resumed its usual practice of asking $30 of dinner attendees. If you are joining us for dinner, please bring a check that is made payable to “Columbia University.” The following should be written on the memo line:
“Seminar in Literary Theory Dinner Payment”
Note Regarding Donations: Due to COVID-19, donations are only accepted through Columbia University’s secure online giving form, Giving to Columbia.
Accessibility Statement: Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminars participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or disability@columbia.edu. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer if they need assistance accessing campus.
