Aug 20, 2022The Ghosts of Mariupol“Is this darkness in you too? Have you passed through this night?” My aunt has switched into Ukrainian. When she found out that her cousins made it out of Mariupol into Crimea, she declared that they were no longer her relatives. I asked if it was possible that they were…Donbass3 min readDonbass3 min read
Jul 5, 2022Trading Space for TimeNo one gives a shit about Donbas. If they have heard of this place at all — if they have conceptualized it not as a province, but rather a region with a particular mentality, which is to say a shared geography and history — they may say, “Oh, that…Donbass4 min readDonbass4 min read
Jun 8, 2022The SwitchThe trill of the tundra swans carries down from 20,000 feet, but you won’t need it where you are going. Their song is ethereal and otherworldly, starkly contrasting the fact that we are stuck here in the muck, in the basic struggles of our own making. If you are hearing…Donbass4 min readDonbass4 min read
Mar 5, 2021On refusal and the challenge of thinking collectively.“I’ve always rejected being understood. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I’m not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect.” — Fernando Pessoa, Book of Disquiet I first learned about journal clubs (or scholarly reading groups) by reading Sarah J. Coysh, William Denton, and Lisa Sloniowski’s…University7 min readUniversity7 min read
Jan 9, 2021On Violence: Rupture and Saturation of the contemporary experienceOn Violence: Rupture and Saturation of the Contemporary Experience “But I have tamed myself, I have stomped on the throat of my own song.” — Mayakovsky One day, while working at the service desk of a local public library, a man came up and said something which lent several chuckles…Violence7 min readViolence7 min read
Dec 30, 2020On Death, Part 1.“More life, more everything” — Drake, “Free Smoke” What does capitalism want? Thinkers like Jason W. Moore have said that it wants to eat the world, locked in a perpetual cycle of accumulation, gathering into itself all that is living: soil, forests, minerals, living beings, energy reserves. …Death6 min readDeath6 min read
Oct 2, 2020New Materialism and a commitment to philosophyWhat is the use of philosophy today? The only thing more embarrassing than declaring oneself a philosopher these days is perhaps to come out as a poet. Few things are as indulgent and impractical as philosophizing in the ever-productive world of contemporary late capitalism. And anyway, is anyone who theorizes…Philosophy7 min readPhilosophy7 min read
Sep 18, 2020How shall we live? Job vs. Work in the Academy“as if they were unalive, as if They were ideas” — e.e.cummings During a weekly huddle in a small unit in which I worked in my “professional youth”, a colleague who was new to the organization and figuring out the scope of their job said something that I remember regularly…Labour7 min readLabour7 min read
