David Scott is the Ruth and William Lubic Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. His books include Refashioning Futures: Criticism After Postcoloniality (1999), Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment (2004), Omens of Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, Justice (2014), and Stuart Hall’s Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity (2017). Scott is the founder and editor of the journal Small Axe and director of the Small Axe Project.
Engaging with moral philosophy, social theory, and postcolonial thinking, David Scott boldly argues that New World slavery was an 'absolute evil,' or irreparable harm, characterized by the destruction of African lifeworlds, for which a reparative response, both moral and material, is necessary. He does so through lucid prose and timely arguments that relate the Caribbean past to our contemporary present in persuasive and provocative ways. -- Gary Wilder, author of <i>Concrete Utopianism: The Politics of Temporality and Solidarity</i>