Congratulations to CSSH author Carole McGranahan (“Imperial but Not Colonial: Archival Truths, British India, and the Case of the “Naughty” Tibetans” (CSSH 59-1, 2017); and “Narrative Dispossession: Tibet and the Gendered Logics of Historical Possibility” (CSSH 52-4, 2010)) on the publication of her new volume, Writing Anthropology: Essays on Craft and Commitment (Duke University Press, 2020). Duke describes the book as follows:
In Writing Anthropology, fifty-two anthropologists reflect on scholarly writing as both craft and commitment. These short essays cover a wide range of territory, from ethnography, genre, and the politics of writing to affect, storytelling, authorship, and scholarly responsibility. Anthropological writing is
more than just communicating findings: anthropologists write to tell stories that matter, to be accountable to the communities in which they do their research, and to share new insights about the world in ways that might change it for the better. The contributors offer insights into the beauty and the function of language and the joys and pains of writing, while giving encouragement to stay at it—to keep writing as the most important way to not only improve one’s writing, but to also honor the stories and lessons learned through research. Throughout, they share new thoughts, prompts, and agitations for writing that will stimulate conversations that cut across the humanities.
CSSH also congratulates Jatin Dua (“Hijacked: Piracy and Economies of Protection in the Western Indian Ocean” (CSSH 63-1, 2019)) on the recent publication of his book Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean (University of California Press, 2019). From the publisher:
How is it possible for six men to take a Liberian-flagged oil tanker hostage and negotiate a huge pay out for the return of its crew and 2.2 million barrels of crude oil? In his gripping new book, Jatin Dua answers this question by exploring the unprecedented upsurge in maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia in the twenty-first century. Taking the reader inside pirate communities in Somalia, onboard multinational container ships, and within insurance offices in London, Dua connects modern day pirates to longer histories of trade and disputes over protection. In our increasingly technological world, maritime piracy represents not only an interruption, but an attempt to insert oneself within the world of oceanic trade. Captured at Sea moves beyond the binaries of legal and illegal to illustrate how the seas continue to be key sites of global regulation, connectivity, and commerce today.
You can also find Dua’s conversation on crime, moral judgement, and jurisdiction with Andrew Shyrock and CSSH authors Anastasia Piliavsky, Gregory Feldman, and Pál Nyíri here.
