In Media Res: US Elections and Politics - a video conversation on November 5, 2020 as part of the AAA's ROV meeting.

In a moment shaped by public health disaster and profound, indeed worsening, economic inequality and racial violence, anthropology continues to show how language is integral to domination.  We have been paying attention to what Emily Apter calls the ‘performative incivility’ of the President’s language, and to the forms of posturing, loose talk, bloopers, and skullduggery that mark much hegemonic discourse in the U.S. But inspired by recent protest movements, we are moved to also ask what forms of resistance are articulable/imaginable in linguistic practices today? Whatever the outcome of the election in November 3, language will be a crucial battleground leading up to it. This session will invite panelists to draw on their own research to reflect on hegemonic discourse and instances of its undoing within the context of our present.

This conversation organized by the American Anthropological Association took place on Nov 7, 2020.  The scholars gathered here include, clockwise from the left, Emily Apter (commentator, NYU), Andrew Brandel (moderator, Harvard), Brandon Terry (commentator, Harvard), David Lebow (commentator, UChicago), Swayam Bagaria (moderator, UVA), Shalini Shanker (commentator, Northwestern).

Watch the conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BWPjhDNRjc&list=PLeLk7nEbVJOyU1paBgeNz9sXmFhBA1obJ&index=2