Cornell’s Reimagining Citizenship speaker series showcases scholars, writers, and artists whose work interrogates the limits and possibilities of legal, social, and cultural belonging.
In the third session of the series, Noah Tamarkin will join a panel of anthropology professors from around the country to discuss his recently published book “Genetic Afterlives: Black Jewish Indigeneity in South Africa.”
In “Genetic Afterlives,” Tamarkin, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Cornell, considers new ways to think about belonging. He writes specifically about the Lemba people of South Africa and illustrates how they have given their own meanings to the results of DNA tests and employed them to manage competing claims of Jewish ethnic and religious identity, African indigeneity, and South African citizenship. This nuanced approach to belonging acknowledges the importance of historical and sacred ties to land without valorizing autochthony, borders, or other technologies of exclusion.
Joining Professor Tamarkin in the panel discussion will be leading anthropology experts from Boston University, Durham University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Duke University, NYU, and the University of Minnesota.
Sponsored by Jewish Studies Program, Departments of Anthropology and Science & Technology Studies, Africana Studies & Research Center, and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.
