This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).

In this essay, I argue that the temporal figure of latency is central for an understanding of the material temporalities of media. Latency as a tempo- ral figure is built into the material functioning of sound reproduction and audiovisual media. The discussion shows how latency underpins techni- cal processes of storing and reproducing sounds and…[Read more]

While the colonial and modern history of epidemics in South Asia is well researched, the earlier developments of this subject area have hardly been studied. The project Epidemics and Crisis Management in Pre-modern South Asia aims to fill part of this gap by exploring the intellectual history of epidemics and similar disasters in South Asia and…[Read more]

Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714–1774), a Bolognese wax sculptor, overcame humble origins to become one of the most important anatomical artists of the eighteenth century. Working with her husband Giovanni Manzolini (c. 1700–1755), and continuing alone after his death, Morandi created remarkably lifelike and anatomically accurate wax models of the sen…[Read more]

“The company builds cars and destroys men” was the promotional tagline of one of the posters for “Blue Collar” (1978). Shot in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto playing three Detroit auto workers in financial despair who break into and rob the offices of their own union. “Blue Collar”…[Read more]

This is a review essay, originally contributed to a blog symposium, responding to the publication of Philip G. Ziegler’s book entitled Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn and the Future of Christian Theology.

This Critical Exchange explores the nonhuman condition. It asks: What are the implications of decentering the human subject via a new materialist reading of radical democracy? Does this reading dilute political agency? Or should this be seen, on the contrary, as an invitation for new voices and demands to enter into democratic assemblages? How…[Read more]

Public health defines to the collective efforts and actions taken by society to promote and protect the health and well-being of its population. It encompasses various strategies, policies, and interventions aimed at preventing diseases, prolonging life, and improving the overall quality of life for individuals and communities.

In this paper, I argue that Hygieia has to be viewed as a full goddess in Greek religion and medicine, with a special focus on her position within the Asklepios cult. I will examine her identity, to which scholars attribute several labels like goddess, abstraction and personification. I further argue that Hygieia’s role in performing incubation r…[Read more]

The present paper aims to investigate the role of anthropology in the development of Ritual Studies as an inter-disciplinary platform, with a focus on ritual dynamics by using a historiographic description, focusing on thetransition of Greco-Roman to Christian culture. This study attempts to shed light not only on the contributionof anthropology…[Read more]

In this short article, I discuss a form of civil disobedience that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic: the refusal to comply with lockdown rules. Because such rule-breakers often claim that they are acting to preserve freedom, I ask whether their unwillingness to help prevent the spread of the virus is symptomatic of neoliberal individualism.…[Read more]

A beginner reader might think that my title is senseless: aren’t sense and nonsense supposed to be opposed? Why seeking continuity there? The Stoics and after them this line that goes from Leibniz to Deleuze via Nietzsche, have revealed an intrinsic relationship of continuity between these two entities that common sense sees as contradictory.…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal, but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively represents a…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal, but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively represents a…[Read more]

The world of Platonic idealism will not be satisfactorily imported into the world of phenomenological consciousness. The task of phenomenological philosophers is to return to the interpretation of experience itself and seek to recast meaning not in terms of theoretical idealism, but in terms of existential meaning. The phenomenological philosopher…[Read more]

King of Brexitland * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

These are excerpts from the Forward Press team’s India tour travelogue. Forward Press Consulting Editor Pramod Ranjan, sociologist Anil Kumar and Forward Press Editor (English) Anil Varghese were part of the team that went on the tour from Delhi to Kanyakumari between 5 January and 15 February 2017. The team covered nine states and one union t…[Read more]

भारत में क्या हालत हो चुकी है, इसका अनुमान दिसंबर, 2020 में हुए एक सर्वेक्षण से लगता है। इस सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार भारत की आधी से अधिक आबादी को कोरोना-काल में पहले की तुलना में कम भोजन मिल रहा है। इनमें ज़्यादातर दलित और आदिवासी हैं। लेकिन इन सूचनाओं से भी अधिक भयावह यह है कि भारत का बौद्धिक वर्ग, ग़रीबों के सर पर मँडराते मौत के इस साये से प्राय:…[Read more]

इस आलेख में मैंने देखने की कोशिश कि कोविड की रोकथाम के लिए उठाए गए अतिरेकपूर्ण कदमों के कारण दुनिया में क्या स्थितियाँ उत्पन्न होने वाली हैं। विशेष तौर पर सामाजिक वंचना झेल रहे मानव-समुदायों पर इसका क्या प्रभाव पड़ने वाला है। आलेख में भारत के उन शोषित समुदायों को केंद्र में रखा गया है, जो भारतीय आबादी का बहुसंख्यक हिस्सा हैं। इस बहुसंख्या में…[Read more]

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have raised concerns about whether AI will surpass and eventually replace humans, leading to a future dominated by digitally sentient entities. This paper challenges this notion by examining the impact of AI evolution on humanity from an evolutionary theorist’s perspective. Instead of viewing…[Read more]