David Graeber, anarchist, anthropologist, died this week. I’ve assigned his work in courses over the years; students were often surprised by his novel take on why the world is as it is. This homage in Jacobin tells a bit about Graeber, and is also interesting to us regarding the way people personally negotiate identity and community boundaries: “A Jewish Goodbye to David Graeber.”

Material relevant to our class, ripped from the headlines. We’ll be talking about authenticity as a problem in general for ingroup boundary police. Krug’s case is very like the examples of literary hoaxes we’ll look at later in the semester. Read about it at Inside Higher Ed: “White Lies: Prominent scholar outs herself as white just as she faced exposure for presenting herself as Black.”

Check this front page for announcements, links to timely news items, etc.

Here’s the book you’ll need right away:
Delanty, Gerard. 2018. Community, 3rd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138068148.