The Institute for the Study of Human Rights hosted an event with 2026-27 visiting scholar Benjamin P. Davis on October 7, 2026. This was the first installment of a new speakers series, in which ISHR’s visiting scholars share their research and current projects.
Davis’ talk, “Edward Said's Struggle to Publish Orientalism,” drew on archival research to discuss the publication history of Orientalism. He connected Said's barriers to publication with ongoing challenges for research in post-colonial theory. He discussed where Orientalism fit on Said's longer trajectory from Conrad to humanism.
Davis is a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) for the 2026-2027 academic year. He visits Columbia from Texas, where he is assistant professor of Africana Studies and Hispanic Studies at Texas A&M University.
Working with Bernard Harcourt, Davis joins ISHR to conduct archival research about the human rights work of Franz Boas and Zora Neale Hurston. He is also writing a short book on desire and an essay returning to Edward Said’s Orientalism.
His most recent book is Another Humanity: Decolonial Ethics from Du Bois to Arendt (Edinburgh UP, 2025). Davis is also the author of Simone Weil’s Political Philosophy: Field Notes from the Margins (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) and Choose Your Bearing: Édouard Glissant, Human Rights, and Decolonial Ethics (Edinburgh UP, 2023). He co-edited Creolizing Critical Theory: New Voices in Caribbean Philosophy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024) with Kris F. Sealey.
Davis is a Fellow at the Center on Modernity in Transition and the President of the Simone Weil Society. He also works as Director of Global Partnerships for the UNESCO Chair on Health, Race and Human Rights, held by Ireh Iyioha. You can follow his work on his website and Academia page.
