Capitalist Curiosity, Mental Unwellness, and Annihilationist Impulses

December 14, 2022 | 1:30pm - 3:00pm

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Add to Calendar 2022-12-14 13:30:00 2022-12-14 15:00:00 Capitalist Curiosity, Mental Unwellness, and Annihilationist Impulses Image Capitalist Curiosity, Mental Unwellness, and Annihilationist Impulses: This presentation will link the issue of mental unwellness to the commodification of curiosity within educational institutions. It will then argue that one role of the academician is to facilitate our students' annihilationist impulses, a means by which to cultivate their political will and help them in pushing against the commodification of their curiosity. Dr. Shankar is an anthropologist, critical pedagogue, and mediamaker whose work falls into several broad areas. He is concerned with the politics of help and its role in upholding systems of racial capitalism. In his book, Brown Saviors and their Others (Duke, 2023), he takes India's burgeoning help economy, specifically the education NGO sector, as a site from which to interrogate these ideas. He shows how colonial, racial, and caste formations undergird how transnational and digitized NGO work is done in India today. Second, he is an advocate for Curiosity Studies (with Perry Zurn), an emerging interdisciplinary field which challenges us to think anew about scholarly production, pedagogic praxis, and the political role of the academician. Arjun asks: what might a radical curiosity make possible and what political, economic, and social constraints prevent the flourishing of curiosity? Zoom Barnard College barnard-admin@digitalpulp.com America/New_York public
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promotional material for arjun shankar's beyond content lecture, 2022 — *Capitalist Curiosity, Mental Unwellness, and Annihilationist Impulses:* This presentation will link the issue of mental unwellness to the commodification of curiosity within educational institutions. It will then argue that one role of the academician is to facilitate our students' annihilationist impulses, a means by which to cultivate their political will and help them in pushing against the commodification of their curiosity.

Dr. Shankar is an anthropologist, critical pedagogue, and mediamaker whose work falls into several broad areas. He is concerned with the politics of help and its role in upholding systems of racial capitalism. In his book, Brown Saviors and their Others (Duke, 2023), he takes India's burgeoning help economy, specifically the education NGO sector, as a site from which to interrogate these ideas. He shows how colonial, racial, and caste formations undergird how transnational and digitized NGO work is done in India today. Second, he is an advocate for Curiosity Studies (with Perry Zurn), an emerging interdisciplinary field which challenges us to think anew about scholarly production, pedagogic praxis, and the political role of the academician. Arjun asks: what might a radical curiosity make possible and what political, economic, and social constraints prevent the flourishing of curiosity?