Two Kalamazoo College lectures open to the public this week will feature a Nicaraguan human-rights fellow and an author who examines an artistic, literary and scientific discourse around animals that evolved in the 19th century.
First, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will host a community reception at Arcus at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday followed by a lecture titled Resilience and Hope at 7 p.m. at Stetson Chapel featuring human-rights fellow Tamara Dávila.
Dávila has first-hand experience in the fight for fair, democratic rights and remaining resilient in the face of government-sanctioned violence and injustice. She will discuss the intersecting issues of wealth inequality in democratic societies, the fight for gender equity and human-rights infringements, while sharing her personal experience as a former political prisoner and activist. The lecture will inform attendees about the turbulent political situation in Nicaragua and its implications for human rights and democracy in the U.S.
Please RSVP in advance to attend the reception, the lecture or both. For information on a live stream option of the lecture, email crimson.johnson@kzoo.edu.
Then, at 4:10 p.m. Thursday in the Olmsted Room, the Department of English will welcome Antoine Traisnel, an associate professor of comparative literature and an associate professor of English language and literature at the University of Michigan.
Traisnel will discuss his latest book, Capture: American Pursuits and the Making of a New Animal Condition (2020, University of Minnesota Press). The publication offers a critical genealogy of the dominant representation of animals as elusive, precarious and endangered that began circulating in the 19th century. He argues that colonialism and the biocapitalist management of nonhuman and human populations demonstrate that the desire to capture animals in representation responded to and normalized the systemic disappearance of animals hurt by unprecedented changes in the land, the rise of mass slaughter, and an awareness of species extinction.
For more information on Traisnel’s lecture, call 269.337.7043.
