Global Human/ities:
Robots, Retroviruses, and the Rest of Us

This two-book talk will discuss the Model Machine: A History of the Asian as Automaton (Temple University 2022) and a forthcoming book Viral World: Global Relations during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Routledge Press 2024). Insofar as the former speaks to a futuristic imaginary garnered through a dehumanizing past, the latter discusses our pandemic present as a process and product of violent humanisms. Both books address the human and humanity as global issues that require new humanistic imaginaries. By probing the human-centered discourses weaponized against Others the talks consider the ways that we humans are beginning to understand the ethical limits of ourselves and the politics of our relationalities.