November 20, 2007 – Hugh Raffles: “Introducing the Insectopedia: 2 out of 26”

SEMINAR

Introducing the Insectopedia: 2 out of 26
Tuesday, November 20 / 4–6 PM / Humanities 210

Hugh Raffles is Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of In Amazonia: A Natural History (Princeton, 2002); his essays have appeared in a range of publications, most recently in CabinetGranta, and Public Culture.

The seminar discussion and presentation are drawn from his current book project, The Illustrated Insectopedia, an exploration of encounters between humans and insects in a wide variety of times and places (contemporary Shanghai, Zurich, Bamako, Tokyo, and Santa Fe; Renaissance Prague, early twentieth-century Berlin, nineteenth-century Provence, etc.). What happens when humans and insects meet? The book focuses on the ineffability and indifference of insects and their ability to provoke moments of ontological instability in which taxonomic hierarchies of various kinds break down, unexpected relationships form and dissolve, and unanticipated events take place.

Email cult@ucsc.edu for a copy of the seminar readings.

This faculty-graduate student seminar is being held in conjunction with a talk for the Anthropology Department,
Squish That Bug! Crush Freaks in an Unforgiving World
Monday, November 19 / 3:30 PM / Soc Sci I, 261.

This event is co-sponsored with the Department of Anthropology.

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