New Report out with Small Arms Survey

I have a new report out with Small Arms Survey.

The civil war that began in South Sudan in December 2013 has had dire consequences for the Shilluk people of Upper Nile, with civilians killed, villages and buildings destroyed, and humanitarian aid blocked. Although exact figures are elusive, estimates suggest that as much as 50 per cent of the Shilluk population has left the country during the current civil war—a figure that rises to 80 per cent if internally displaced people are included.  

Displaced and Immiserated: The Shilluk of Upper Nile in South Sudan’s civil war, 2014–19, my new report from the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment for the Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) project, places events in Upper Nile from 2014–19 in their historical context and analyzes the main military tactics employed by government forces in Shilluk areas.

Embassy of Foreign Artists

Next year, from October-December 2020, I will be an artist-in-residence at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva, where I will be working on a novel, Anatomy of Exile, which I will write in dialogue with the archive of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) . You can read more about the residency here.

The Conflict in Unity State, South Sudan

I have a new piece out with Small Arms Survey, looking at the conflict in Unity state, South Sudan, in the wake of Kiir's decree, dividing the country's 10 states into 28. You can read it here.

A new issue of Asymptote

Back in January, a new issue of Asymptote came out. In the nonfiction section, which I edit, I was happy to publish pieces including:

• An excerpt from Sibylle Lacan's memoir of her father, Jaques Lacan.
• A wonderful chapter from a biography of Imam Mousa Sadr, from the perspective of his eldest son.
• A great piece of Polish reportage on the legacies of modernism. 
• Some elegiac vita from the St. Katharinental Sister Book, written in the 14th and 15th centuries.

A new issue of Asymptote Journal

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I am the nonfiction editor of Asymptote, and we have a new issue out. I am particularly proud of the nonfiction section, which includes Grégoire Chamayou on drones, an epistolary exchange between the wonderful Semezdin Mehmedinović and Miljenko Jergović on Susan Sontag and other matters, prose poetry from Syria, the Soviet literary icon Ilya Ilf, and the memories of the Martinican writer Raphaël Confiant.

New Working Paper with Small Arms Survey

I have a new working paper out with Small Arms Survey, Contested Borders: Continuing Tensions over the Sudan-South Sudan Border, which surveys the border zone since 2013, in the midst of the two countries civil wars. 

An excerpt from Redacted Mind

As part of the New Museum's Temporary Center for Translation exhibition, which housed excerpts from my Grammar of Redaction, Six Degrees, the New Museum's blog, is publishing a series of texts around the themes of the exhibition. First up is an excerpt from the novel I am working on, Redacted Mind, introduced by the wonderful Omar Berrada.

The 14-Mile Area

I have a new piece out with Small Arms Survey on the situation in the 14-Mile Area on the Sudan-South Sudan border. 

The Conflict in Bahr el Ghazal

I have a new piece out with Small Arms Survey on the conflict in the Bahr el Ghazal region, South Sudan. It also includes a great map. 

New piece on Unity State

I have a new article out with Small Arms Survey, on the situation in Unity State, South Sudan.

New articles on Abyei and the Sudan-South Sudan Border

I have two new articles out with Small Arms Survey Sudan, one on the situation in Abyei, the other on the so-called Safe Demilitarized Border Zone.

How to do things with(out) words

My talk at the NYU Radical Archives conference, which looks at the aesthetics of redaction, is now a podcast, which you can listen to here, thanks to Creative Time Reports.

New articles on Upper Nile and Unity State

I have two new pieces out with Small Arms Survey, one on the conflict in Unity state, and the other on Upper Nile state, South Sudan.

Better reading with Medium

I have uploaded a few of my shorter essays over at Medium, a website that has made crisp, clear presentation of text on the internet a breeze. You can read some of my recent work here.

Photography Books

I have some brief notes on photography criticism up here, on the excellent anthropology blog Somatosphere, as part of their regular column, 'Top of the Heap.'

UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary

I was chosen to be one of the four 2014 UNESCO Laureate Artists in Creative Writing. As part of the bursary, I will be spending several months this year on a writing residency at the Dar Al Ma'Mûn in Morocco.

More on the referendum in Abyei

I have another article out with Small Arms Survey, this time on the results of the referendum in Abyei.

The referendum in Abyei

I have a piece up with Small Arms Survey on the background to the referendum in Abyei.

Some new work on Abyei

I have some new work on Abyei up with Small Arms Survey. Here is last month's long summary of the current 'crisis', and here is a summary of events up to 15 May 2013.