Conversations on Violence

'Brad Evans in one of the brightest critical minds of his generation' -- Henry A. Giroux 'Violence has been extraordinarily difficult to account for in conception and explanation. This compelling collection of first-rate contributions goes a long way to addressing these difficulties ... it serves as an anchor for critical thinking on the complex range, power and impacts of violence' -- David Theo Goldberg, author of Dread: Facing Futureless Futures (2021) 'Conversations on Violence may have a foreboding title, but the collected interviews with artists, academics, activists, and entertainers is lively, stimulating, and engaging it is more like a salon than a crime scene. The topics discussed are serious and urgent from climate change, to the re-emergence of fascism, to sexual assault but the brilliant minds included here address these issues in direct and clear-eyed ways that point to fairer, safer, and more fully realized modes of existence in the future' -- Deborah Berke, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture and founding partner of Deborah Berke Partners Reviews for the previous volume, Violence: Humans in Dark Times also by Brad Evans 'Notable contemporary thinkers and creators give their individual perspectives in this compelling look at violence. ... A provocative volume that challenges humanity to correct its runaway course toward an increasingly violent future by learning from its violent past' Kirkus Reviews 'The purpose of the work is to challenge humanity to create more meaningful solutions when it comes to these kinds of violence--or at least to name violence without inadvertently inciting even more anger. . . . passion roars through every chapter . . . This book delivers on what it promises, which is an achievement' The Los Angeles Review of Books 'Many of us live today with a pervasive sense of unease, worried that our own safety is at risk, or that of our loved ones, or that of people whose bad circumstances appear to us through networked media. Violence feels ever-present. Natasha Lennard and Brad Evans help us to analyze those feelings, talking with a wide range of thinkers in order to gain insight into the worst of what humans do, and challenging us to imagine a world in which violence is no longer a given. Their book is full of surprising insights and intelligent compassion' Sarah Leonard, co-editor of The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century 'In Violence, Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard have created, alongside their interview subjects, a kaleidoscopic exploration of the concept of violence, in terrains expected and not, in prose taut and unexpectedly gorgeous. Their philosophical rigor provides the reader with an intellectual arsenal against the violence of the current moment' Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood 'This is a book that will make everyone feel clever. Reflections on violence, both actual, and the possibility of, mediating so much of social interaction, also makes for critical reading. The range of interviews with leading academics, to filmmakers and artists, is impressive, at once immediate and relevant, but also profoundly philosophical. More essentially, though, the conversations underline the need and suggest ways to resist and organize in a visionary way, in the extraordinary times we live in' Razia Iqbal, BBC News 'Standing on their own, the interview subjects featured in Violence: Humans In Dark Times might be identified as the foremost intellectuals, artists, and activists engaged with questions of how violence moves, acts, and is witnessed in the world. But summoned together in this collection by two political thinkers distinguished by both their unmatched intellects and their willingness to deploy those intellects in acts of service rather than performance, their voices materialize as a creative space large and fertile enough to lay the groundwork for an a

Brad Evans is a political philosopher, critical theorist, and writer specialising in the problem of violence. He is Professor of Political Violence & Aesthetics at the University of Bath and the lead editor for the Histories of Violence section with the Los Angeles Review of Books. Adrian Parr is an internationally recognised environmental, political and cultural thinker and activist. She is Dean of the College of Design at the University of Oregon, and she serves as a UNESCO Chair on Water and Human Settlements.

Introduction - Brad Evans & Adrian Parr 1. The Poetry of Resistance - Malcolm London 2. Breaking the World - Marina Abramovic 3. Trans-species Encounters - David Rothenberg 4. Recovering from an Addicted Life - Russell Brand 5. Non-Violence & the Ghost of Fascism - Todd May (Clemson University) 6. Without Exception: On the Ordinariness of Violence - Lauren Berlant (University of Chicago) 7. The Anatomy of Destruction - Gil Anidjar (Columbia University) 8. The Intimate Witness: Art and the Disappeared of History - Chantal Meza 9. The Death of Humanitarianism - Mark Duffield (Global Insecurities Centre) 10. The Expulsion of Humanity - Saskia Sassen (Columbia University) 11. When Art is Born of Resistance - Martha Rosler 12. The Tragedy of Existence - Simon Critchley (New School for Social Research) 13. The Violence of the Algorithm - Davide Panagia (University of California) 14. Thinking Art in a Decolonial Way - Lewis Gordon 15. What does an Anti-Fascist Life Feel Like? - Natasha Lennard (New School for Social Research) 16. Life in Zones of Abandonment - Henry A. Giroux 17. The Violence of Absent Emergencies - Santiago Zabala 18. The Ghosts of Civilised Violence - Alex Taek-Gwang Lee (Kyung Hee University, Seoul) 19. Violence is Freedom - Roy Scranton (University of Notre-Dame) 20. Slavery in America - Ana-Lucia Araujo (Howard University) 21. Why We Should All Read Walter Benjamin Today - James Martel (San Francisco State University) 22. Unlearning History - Ariella Aisha Azoulay (Brown University) 23. When Death Travels - Gareth Owen 24. The Poverty of Violence - Ananya Roy (UCLA) 25. The Violence of Denial - Linda Melvern 26. Why We Should All Read Malcolm X Today - Kehinde Andrews (Birmingham City University) 27. America is Not a Fascist State. Its an Authoritarian one - Ruth Ben-Ghiat (New York University) 28. The Atmosphere of Violence - Fatima Bhutto 29. The Inherited Memory of Art - Mark Bradford 30. Look Closer, Then You Will See - Isaac Cordal 31. The Revolutionary Potential of Pacificism - Richard Jackson (University of Otago, NZ) Index