Epidemic Empire and Colonialism with Anjuli Raza Kolb
Episode 94 - June 16, 2022
Anjuli Raza Kolb (University of Toronto) joins Merle and Lee to discuss “Epidemic Empire”, her recent book on the history behind the metaphor of the “terrorism epidemic”. The conversation covers the development of the idea of insurgent violence as an epidemic in the nineteenth century, touching on imperialism and colonialism, particularly from a British perspective. Anjuli traces the development of the metaphor chronologically, with several stops along the way, until Covid. Among others, Anjuli examines discourse about Muslims and infectious disease, and several transition points – such as the Haiti Revolution and the Algerian Independence Movement, as well as AIDS and 9/11.
Further Reading
- Anjuli Raza Kolb, Epidemic Empire: Colonialism, Contagion, and Terror 1817-2020 (University of Chicago Press, 2021).
- “The Disease Poetics of Empire: A Conversation with Anjuli Raza Kolb,” The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 17, 2021.
- Jasbir K. Puar, The Right to Maim, Duke University Press, 2017.
- Anjuli Raza Kolb “Meta-Dracula: Contagion and the Colonial Gothic,” Victorian Literature and Culture 27.2 (April, 2022) 292-301.
- Khaled Beydoun, Amercian Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear (University of California Press, 2019).
Our Guest
Anjuli Raza Kolb
Associate Professor of English, University of Toronto
