Uploaded April 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This discussion with Ashley Dawson, Eben Kirksey, Julie Livingstone, Anne McClintock, Rob Nixon, and Jovana Stokic will probe imaginative horizons to illuminate concrete sites of biocultural hope. This conversation will orbit around two freshly published books: Extinction: A Radical History by Ashley Dawson and Emergent Ecologies by Eben Kirksey. As other species are snuffed out, possible futures for humans look bleak. Can radical political transformation bring an end to the sixth mass extinction event? As some charismatic creatures are being saved in zoos, captive breeding facilities, and cryogenic banks, a multitude of others are disappearing as they are disregarded or actively targeted for destruction. How should we love in a time of extinction? What practices of care can keep those who we love in the world?
Ashley Dawson is professor of English at the College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center. His work examines the literature of migration, including movement from postcolonial nations such as Jamaica and Nigeria to the former imperial center and from rural areas to mega-cities of the global South like Lagos and Mumbai. He is the author of Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain, and co-editor of Democracy, the State, and the Struggle for Global Justice; Dangerous Professors: Academic Freedom and the National Security Campus; and Exceptional State: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the New Imperialism. At present Dawson is at work on a book about urban culture and imperialism and on a history of twentieth-century British literature. He is currently web co-editor of the journal Social Text.
Extinction is available for purchase from OR Books: orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson
This discussion with Ashley Dawson, Eben Kirksey, Julie Livingstone, Anne McClintock, Rob Nixon, and Jovana Stokic will probe imaginative horizons to illuminate concrete sites of biocultural hope. This conversation will orbit around two freshly published books: Extinction: A Radical History by Ashley Dawson and Emergent Ecologies by Eben Kirksey. As other species are snuffed out, possible futures for humans look bleak. Can radical political transformation bring an end to the sixth mass extinction event? As some charismatic creatures are being saved in zoos, captive breeding facilities, and cryogenic banks, a multitude of others are disappearing as they are disregarded or actively targeted for destruction. How should we love in a time of extinction? What practices of care can keep those who we love in the world?
Ashley Dawson is professor of English at the College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center. His work examines the literature of migration, including movement from postcolonial nations such as Jamaica and Nigeria to the former imperial center and from rural areas to mega-cities of the global South like Lagos and Mumbai. He is the author of Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain, and co-editor of Democracy, the State, and the Struggle for Global Justice; Dangerous Professors: Academic Freedom and the National Security Campus; and Exceptional State: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the New Imperialism. At present Dawson is at work on a book about urban culture and imperialism and on a history of twentieth-century British literature. He is currently web co-editor of the journal Social Text.
Extinction is available for purchase from OR Books: orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson
