The inaugural Interdisciplinary Humanities Annual Lecture will be presented by Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya on 12 March 2025.

'What is there to say in the face of catastrophe? What might it take to understand the horror of the world?'

I have been thinking about what it is to try to know the world through practiced accounts of the workings of power, through established social categories, through the speech acts of the powerful. By following the money. By spotting where the violent differentiation of human populations happens and is happening. By looking to see who is being made disposable. By thinking again about what disposability of populations does for the rich and powerful of the world. By thinking of display as a mode of power and of stealth as a tactic of power. By revisiting the terms of geopolitics as international institutions freeze or fail. By digging deep into my bag of tricks and reservoir of past reading, just to try to remind myself what the job of intellectual inquiry might be.

And, in the end, I wonder if these habits of thought can come anywhere close to registering the horror of the world.

The lecture is open to all. Please register for tickets using the link on the right-hand side.

About the speaker

Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya is Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL. Gargi writes and teaches on issues of inequality, social justice and state practices.

They have authored a number of books, including: Tales of dark-skinned women (1998); Sexuality and Society (2002); Dangerous Brown Men (2008); Traffick (2005); Crisis, Austerity and Everyday Life (2015); Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2018); We, the heartbroken (2023); and The Futures of Racial Capitalism (2023).

Workshop

There will also be a workshop earlier in the day from 4.30pm-5.30pm, open to King's staff, postgraduate students, and specific students in their third year of the Liberal Arts BA. If you meet this criteria and would like to attend, please contact Tim Huzar.