Featured Scholar - October 2021

What are you watching/streaming?
The Detectorists (Amazon Prime), a quirky comedy about two hobbyists who comb the rural countryside with metal detectors in search of Saxon treasures. The characters (and all their foibles) are painted with love and care. It's about friendship, connection with the land, connection with the past, and the beauty of small things.

What games are you playing?
Duolingo. I started about four months into the pandemic, and now I have a 377 day streak and no idea how I will break it. It's much easier to just keep doing a little German practice every day than to disappoint Duo!

What are you listening to?
I've been listening to Jane Austen novels as audiobooks while I make dinner. There are two recent adaptations (Emma and Northanger Abbey) on Audible that are narrated by Emma Thomson, and they are delightful!

What are you reading?
The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin. She is a master at creating a world and filling it with persons – broken, fearful persons who somehow also have dignity and strength. 

What are you writing/thinking about?
I'm thinking about how we should interpret contested actions. A contested action is one where we can agree on the act that was performed (e.g., there was a hand gesture, an assertion), but we cannot agree on its meaning. Is the crowd rioting or protesting? Is the person grandstanding, or just animated? Is she being unreasonable, or is he gaslighting her? Is he flexing his privilege, or asking for a fair hearing? This is a morally fraught question because the quality of our interpersonal relationships depends on how we interpret each other. In order to answer this question, I've been reading the work of Simone Weil, a French mystic philosopher from the early 20th century. She argues that what is needed is attunement. We must carefully attend to features of the action, what motivates it, its social significance, and its impact on others.