Wednesday, March 31, 2021
1:30-2:45 pm EDT

Laurence Ralph 
Professor of Anthropology
Princeton University

This talk introduces Ralph’s recently published book, The Torture Letters, which focuses on what it means to be policed in the United States today. It moves from Ralph’s own experiences with racial profiling as a teenager to the horrific history of police torture in Chicago. Born out of more than a decade of research, the book serves as an instant primer on the roots of police violence. It is premised on the nagging realization that right now, somewhere in the United States, similar episodes of police violence are playing out in real-time. Without question, police violence is driven by a dichotomy between “good” versus “bad” people. And too often, the police inflict violence on the latter—those presumed to be guilty and thus unworthy of love or care. Ralph hopes this book can be part of a larger movement that helps forge an alliance to unite people around human dignity.

Co-Sponsors: The Center for the Humanities at Tufts; Department of Anthropologythe Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora; and the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Student Response Posts