Slow violence is our topic this week, reading sections from Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011). This week only, the doctoral seminar will be at the earlier time of 1pm-2pm, to allow for those going to the Lytle Shaw talk at 2pm.
We’ll discuss the introduction to Slow Violence, focusing on pages 1-16. This is to keep the reading manageable, but you’re very welcome to read further.
Reading:
Rob Nixon, ‘Introduction’ in Slow Violence and the Enivronmentalism of the Poor (2011), pp.1-16. Access online.
Time & Place:
- 13:00-14:00, Wed 30 Jan 2019 – note the earlier time.
- Shackleton Room (Arts 439)
Violence is customarily conceived as an event or action that is immediate in time, explosive and spectacular in space, and as erupting into instant sensational visibility. We need, I believe, to engage a different kind of violence, a violence that is neither spectacular nor instantaneous, but rather incremental and accretive, its calamitous repercussions playing out across a range of temporal scales. (Rob Nixon, Slow Violence, p.2)
About the Doctoral Seminar:
This is an informal weekly reading group run for postgraduates within the Department of English Literature. We select a short text to read in advance, often a work of theory, then meet to discuss it. The seminar provides an opportunity to consider aspects of the reading that were thought-provoking or challenging for you, think about how it relates to texts you may have studied or plan to read, and share aspects of your own research and academic practice. It’s also a chance to get together, try out ideas, and meet fellow postgraduate researchers. There will be tea, coffee and biscuits and you are very welcome!
For access to readings, please email Dorothy Butchard (d.butchard@bham.ac.uk).