The Great Pandemic Novel Will Not Be About the Pandemic By Alissa Jones Nelson If someone asked you to list the necessary tools for global transformation, fiction might not be high on your list. But perhaps it should be. At a recent Counterpoint event, the panelists (including myself) were asked Read more
In the Midst of a Global Pandemic: A Conversation about Dependency, Interconnectedness, and Planetarity 15 May 2020 Dorothea Green Lecture Series, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs The current Covid crisis, among other things, highlights our dependency upon human others: not just medical workers, but the people who Read more
Shorter and Sweeter By Alissa Jones Nelson The issue of immortality, whether spiritual or corporeal, has fascinated human beings for as long as we’ve told stories. The idea of eternal life has been both a motivation for better behavior in this life and a panacea (or a placebo) for all Read more
Making a Mess By Alissa Jones Nelson My last blog post suggested that we need to think anew—personally and politically—about population growth and having children in the light of the current ecological crisis. I drew on Donna Haraway’s pithy directive to “make kin, not babies.” That post focused on the Read more
Making Kin By Alissa Jones Nelson “Make kin, not babies.” Donna J. Haraway’s four-word gauntlet, thrown down in her 2016 book Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, becomes more relevant every day. As a woman who has chosen not to have children, I’ve been called many things. Read more
Why Physics Needs Poetry By Alissa Jones Nelson “Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe. We need the languages of both science and poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless ‘information’ that fails to inform our ignorance or our irresponsibility.” I love Ursula Read more
Counterpoint: Conducting Edward Said’s ‘And Also’ by Alissa Jones Nelson Binaries are bogus constructions. We live in a world of continuum, of three-dimensional spiral. Linear progress is a myth we’ve told ourselves almost to death. It’s hardly original to suggest that contemporary approaches to the complexities of globalization–multiculturalism, populism, cosmopolitan Read more