Rescuing the Dead and Rethinking the Human: Sinan Antoon
Channel: Simpson Center
Date: 19/05/2021

Sinan Antoon discusses rescuing the dead and rethinking the human to explore how the inequalities that characterize and persist in human life endure in death and grief, as well. Antoon asks us to think of war’s collateral damage as a black hole into which worlds disappear and from which not even the dead are safe.  Recorded live webinar April 1, 2021. 

Part of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar speaker series "Humanitarianisms: Migrations & Care through the Global South." Made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & supported by the Simpson Center for the Humanities.  

*Learn more about the series:* 
✔ https://www.humanitarianisms.org/ 

*Clickable Chapter Markers*
00:00 Introduction to series
03:13 Introduction to speaker and discussant
4:45 Sinan Antoon: Rescuing the Dead
6:32 US invasion of Iraq and uncounted bodies of Iraqi civilians
8:53 iraqbodycount.org; Working against the erasure 
11:21 A proper burial, “a grim job in the service of Allah” 
12:41 Spread of COVID-19 and the corona cemetery 
14:42 The Corpse Washer, an artist and rituals of caring for the dead: the story of Jawad 
18:31 The Book of the Collateral Damage, life and death extend to the non-human   
19:57 “Even the dead are not safe from the enemy”
20:34 Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry and how a house becomes a casualty of war
21:37 Concluding remarks: Writing the history of the vanquished; al-Ma’arri and tending to dead bodies
23:30 Discussion with Selim Kuru
43:55 Q&A moderated by Cristian Capotescu
1:05:08 Conclusion, and announcement of next event

Produced & edited by Simpson Center for the Humanities Program & Events Manager Caitlin Palo; assistance from Simpson Center Communications Manager C.R. Grimmer.

Full Webinar Credits: 
Co-Convened by Professors Arzoo Osanloo (Law, Societies, & Justice; Director, Middle East Center, UW) & Cabeiri Robinson (International Studies, Comparative Religions, & South Asian Studies, UW) & 
Discussant: Selim Kuru (Associate Professor and Chair of
the Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilization)
Moderator: Cristian Capotescu
Chapter Markings: Mediha P. Sorma (Mellon Sawyer Doctoral Fellow)
Poster & Background Graphic Design: Ana Karina Luna 
Intro/Outro Music:  Lobo Loco, “Night at Sahara Dune” on Diversity of Life. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. 
Video Production & Editing by Caitlin Palo 
Video Consultant: C.R. Grimmer

*Description of Sinan Antoon's prepared remarks*
"Rescuing the Dead"
Material and discursive resources and energies are dedicated (insufficiently and unequally) to rescue the living from harm, and to tend to their wounds. But what of the dead? What can we, the living, learn from the rituals and traditions of tending to the dead and to their wounds? Beyond the corporeal, encounters with the ghosts and memories of the dead raise crucial political questions about the ways in which humans inhabit this world. Al-Ma’arri cautioned us a millennium ago to “tread gently, for the soil of this earth is made of these corpses.” This talk will summon al-Ma’arri’s ghost, among others, to address these questions.

*Speaker bio*
Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi-born poet, novelist, and scholar. He has published two collections of poetry and four novels. His most recent work is The Book of Collateral Damage (Yale University Press, 2019). His prize-winning translations include In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish (Archipelago, 2011). Antoon’s scholarly works include The Poetics of the Obscene: Ibn al-Hajjaj and Sukhf (Palgrave, 2014). His op-eds have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times and many pan-Arab newspapers. He is co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya and Associate Professor at New York University.

*Sinan Antoon's website*
✔http://www.sinanantoon.com/


*Learn more about the series:*
 ✔ https://www.humanitarianisms.org/​
 
*Follow Humanitarianisms Mellon Sawyer Seminar on Facebook* 
 ✔ https://www.facebook.com/humanitarianisms.org

*Simpson Center Social Media*
✔ https://twitter.com/simpson_center
✔ https://www.instagram.com/simpson_center
✔ https://www.facebook.com/simpson.center

*More on the Simpson Center for the Humanities*  
✔https://simpsoncenter.org/