On Jihad, Empire and Solidarity
Fri, Mar 26, 2021 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±0)
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In this event, Dr Li will discuss his new book with Prof Tarak Barkawi and Dr Catherine Baker, with a Q&A from the audience.
No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so-called jihadists seem opposed to universalism itself. In a radical departure from conventional wisdom on the topic, Dr Darryl Li’s new book, The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire and the Challenge of Solidarity argues that transnational jihadists are engaged in their own form of universalism: these fighters struggle to realize an Islamist vision directed at all of humanity, transcending racial and cultural difference.
In this event, Dr Li will discuss his new book with Prof Tarak Barkawi (LSE) and Dr Catherine Baker (Hull), with questions and answers from the audience. The event will be moderated by Dr Mahvish Ahmad (LSE).
Darryl Li is an anthropologist and attorney working at the intersection of war, law, migration, empire, and race with a focus on transregional linkages between the Middle East, South Asia, and the Balkans. He is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology and Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and the author of The Universal Enemy (SUP, 2020).
Tarak Barkawi is a historian of war and empire and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is a Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Catherine Baker is a specialist in post-Cold War history, international relations and cultural studies, including the post-Yugoslav region in a transnational and global context. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull.
Mahvish Ahmad studies sovereign violence and subaltern movements in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. She is an Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Politics at the London School of Economics.
