What We're Writing Now
Presented in partnership with the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities, UW-Madison faculty in the fields of Medical History and Bioethics, Political Science, and Literary Studies convene to talk about their recently released, field-shaping publications. Richard Keller, Scott Straus, and Caroline Levine will discuss their work on the Paris heat wave of 2003, nation-making in postcolonial Africa, and the patterns and arrangements that shape both art and political life.
Richard Keller
Richard Keller is a Professor in the UW-Madison Department of Medical History and Bioethics, where his work focuses on the history of European and colonial medicine and public health, history of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, history of the human sciences, and science and race. He is the author of Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003 and Colonial Madness: Psychiatry in French North Africa.
Caroline Levine
Caroline Levine is a Professor at the UW-Madison Department of English, where her work focuses on Victorian literature and culture, formalism, realism, narrative theory, world literature, and the relations between art and politics. She is the author of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Heirarchy, Network, Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts, and editor of the Norton Anthology of World Literature, 3rd ed.
Scott Straus
Scott Straus is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at UW-Madison. Scott specializes in the study of genocide, political violence, human rights, and African politics. His most recent book publication is Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa. His introductory book on genocide, Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, is scheduled for publication in late 2015 by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has also published several books on Rwanda, including The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda; Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence; and Intimate Enemy. Scott also co-authored (with David Leonard) Africa’s Stalled Development, translated The Great Lakes of Africa and co-edited (with Steve Stern) The Human Rights Paradox. He has also published articles in a number of academic journals. Scott has received fellowships from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the United States Institute of Peace. In 2009, he was awarded the campus-wide William H. Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2011, he was named a Winnick Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He co-edits the book series Critical Human Rights with Steve Stern. Before starting in academia, Scott was a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.