Readings for the first session are as follows. The chapter from Rothberg’s book is accessible in both ePub and PDF through AU Library.

• Rothberg, Michael. 2019. ”Introduction: From Victims and Perpetrators to Implicated Subjects.” The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pages 1-28.
• Crownshaw, Rick. 2019. ”Climate Change Perpetrators: Ecocriticism, Implicated Subjects, and Anthropocene Fiction.” Susanne C. Knittel and Zachary J. Goldberg (eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies. London: Routledge. Pages 228-240. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315102887/routledge-international-handbook-perpetrator-studies-zachary-goldberg-susanne-knittel

On the Abetting Everyday Harms reading group

This reading group will explore the concepts of moral complicity (and implication, its close cousin) by bringing together writings from multiple disciplines such as literary studies, law, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, history. We are seeking similarly interdisciplinary reading group participants.

Our exploration of complicity is at once focused through an emphasis on climate change, but at the same time seeks to draw from a broad and foundational conceptual base, and this mixture is reflected in the readings, some of which are devoted to the concept of complicity itself, and some of which are focused on climate. The aim is to set a moderate and achievable amount of reading for shared interdisciplinary discussion which can act as a framework for further individual reading.

The initial few readings will have set content but the organisers will welcome suggestions for additions later in the semester so that the program reflects collective interests as they develop.

We are particularly interested in the ways in which complicity shows up in unexpected ways in our life and work, and hope to think about what less complicit processes could look like. We are particularly interested in the role of cultural production and intellectual methodologies as sites of complicity and of its representation.
We aim to develop a framework for interdisciplinary discussion both of the problem of complicity and some accounts of how we might moving beyond, through, or past it. We are interested not only in why we necessarily abet everyday harms, but also how we might learn to abet them a little less.