Julia Elyachar responds to six CSSH authors’ engagements with “the semicivilized.”
Category: In Dialogue
A good CSSH essay generates ample commentary, both before publication (in the form of peer review) and after (in patterns of citation and classroom use). In this forum, we invite authors to talk about the work they have placed in CSSH, how intellectual trends associated with the journal are changing, and new analytical problems and approaches that should receive more attention than they currently do.
Ottoman Heuristics: Six takes on “the semicivilized”
Koh Choon Hwee, Nora Barakat, Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, Mustafa Tuna, Fahad Bishara, and Anoush Suni consider Julia Elyachar’s concept of “the semicivilized.”
“The location of sovereignty is still in question,” Fred Cooper and Krishan Kumar talk about decolonization and what might come next
Fred Cooper and Krishan Kumar comment on common threads in one another’s CSSH work and consider what’s next for decolonization.
Latest Revisions. A conversation with David Akin, CSSH Managing Editor (2000-2025)
Andrew Shryock interviews CSSH Managing Editor David Akin upon his retirement.
Tractors, Truckers, and Class Energetics, a conversation with Elizabeth Chatterjee, winner of the 2025 Goody Award
CSSH interviews 2025 Jack Goody Award-winner Elizabeth Chatterjee.
A Juridical Likeness: Matei Candea discusses free speech, lateral comparison, and lessons learned while editing
In conversation with CSSH editors past (Andrew Shryock) and present (Jatin Dua), Matei Candea makes a strong case for experimentation, for comparison’s scalar potential, and for the need to build larger, collectivist frames that will connect arguments across time and space.
From “Mad Slaves” to the Mind Politic: A Conversation with Nana Osei Quarshie, Winner of the 2024 Goody Award.
CSSH interviews 2024 Goody Award winner Nana Osei Quarshie.
New Secular Formations. A Conversation with Isaac Friesen, Aymeric Xu, Usmon Boron, and Gregory Starrett
We asked four CSSH authors what has changed in the study of secularism over the last decade or so, and what remains the same.
Meticulous Sleuthing. A conversation with Koh Choon Hwee.
Koh Choon Hwee discusses her Goody Award-winning essay, “The Mystery of the Missing Horses: How to Uncover an Ottoman Shadow Economy,” with CSSH.
The Hindu/Han Letters: Audrey Truschke and Gina Anne Tam discuss the prospects for new India-China comparisons
Audrey Truschke and Gina Anne Tam exchange letters comparing their scholarship on “Hindu” and “Han,” subjects of their recent CSSH essays.