A core component of CSREA’s mission is supporting the development of cutting-edge, collaborative, intellectual work. “What I Am Thinking About Now” is an informal workshop/seminar series where faculty and advanced students present recently published works and works in progress for early-stage feedback and development. See all of this semester’s WITAN events here.

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Black Witnessing: Costs, Imperatives, and Possibilities

Damali Britton, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, Brown University

This talk examines Elizabeth Alexander’s “Can You Be BLACK and Look At This?” drawing out the ethical claims Alexander makes about witnessing. With Alexander, Britton conceptualizes witnessing as a kind of care work and theorizes about collective witnessing’s capacity to anticipate alternative social worlds.

About the Presenter

Damali Britton is currently a third-year Political Science Ph.D. at Brown University, focusing on political thought and theory. Drawing on a variety of influences including phenomenology, care theory, and Black feminist thought, her current project explores the phenomenon of Black women witnessing violence within the United States. Within this project, she grapples with questions such as: what are the costs of witnessing; what kinds of orientations and sensitivities make people more available to witness and for whom; and how might structures of power and domination hamper the possibility of democratizing the labors of witnessing?