Why is vigilantism prevalent in South Africa? Join us this week to answer this and related questions about post-Apartheid South Africa. Our very own Ph.D. candidate, Nick Smith, will be presenting a chapter of his dissertation (The Rights of Others: Vigilantism and the Contradictions of Democratic State Formation in Post-Apartheid South Africa). Barnard Choi will be the discussant.

I will send a copy of the paper to our mailing lists later today.

Join our postdoc Susanne Wengle as she presents her recent work, “The Creation and Evolution of Standardized Market Categories; or, what is State Power in Constructivist Political Economy?” Jacob Blecher will be our discussant.

The paper will be sent out over email today.

Also, I want to thank everyone  for coming to our first session of the year this past Wednesday (and thanks to Diana for a really interesting paper).

Be sure to come out next week for our first session of the Autumn Quarter (October 10, 5pm). Our guest will be our very own PhD candidate, Diana Kim. She will be presenting her paper “The Perverse Consequences of Fiscal Legibility: Registering Opium Consumers in British Burma, 1893-1934″. Tania Islas will be our discussant.

For those interested in Burma, here is a nice introduction to the case (click here for the link).

The paper will go out over the comparativepol and polsal lists later today.

Hope to see you there!