"This talk attends to an anthropological research and writing project with which the author is currently engaged, on the aftermath of violence in Paris, France – specifically, the November 13, 2015, attacks in Paris. In reflecting on the political and sensorial atmosphere in Paris in the months after the attacks, and on certain aspects of Opération Sentinelle, the state-sponsored program in which military soldiers patrol the city’s streets to protect its residents and deter acts of violence, the author develops an ethnographically informed account of an “ethos of vigilance” currently in effect in Paris and elsewhere. The vigilance itself relates to certain phantasms of violence, in which everyday life appears to be threatened by potentialities of fear, terror, and sudden violence."

The Michigan Anthropology Colloquia Series presents speakers on current topics in the field of anthropology.