The Torch and the Hearth: The Pyropolitics of ‘Islamic State’

Event date/time: 
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - 12:15pm
Place: 
ILC Comm Hub, 3rd Floor

Fire is a prevalent visual, textual and discursive trope in "Islamic State"'s own literature and imagery. Drawing on a book project supported by a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, this talk grapples with three related questions: Why is re a dominant motif in IS depictions of itself? What does the prevalence of re in the group's cultural production reveal about IS? And nally, what does the ubiquity of re in IS propaganda tells us about the world we live in? Focusing on half a dozen audio-visual and textual primary sources, and interpreting them through elemental philosophy and a transhistorical literature in the War Machine, I explain the importance of re to the IS's vision of itself and its enemies, and explore what this tells us about the turbulent era we live in. 

Contact's name: 
Katty Alhayek
Contact's email: 
Location: 
650 N Pleasant St
Amherst, MA 01003
United States
Event Date: 
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - 12:15pm
650 N Pleasant St Amherst MA