The Council on African Studies presents:
A Symposium on Jonny Steinberg’s “The Number”.
The Number (2004) established Jonny Steinberg as one of the most insightful commentators on South African politics and history of his generation. An intensive exploration of prison and prison gangs before, during, and after Apartheid through the life of Magadien Wentzel, a lifelong criminal and gang leader, it is simultaneously a study of the country’s troubled evolution from the neglected perspective of those who live in and run its prisons, and those whose lives are shaped by them. Ian Shapiro will moderate a panel in which Mahmood Mamdani, James Scott, and Elisabeth Wood will discuss the implications of The Number with Jonny Steinberg for current debates about the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of studying politics.
- Jonny Steinberg, Professor of African Studies, Oxford University, Visiting Professor of African Studies and Politics, Yale University
- Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government, Columbia University
- James Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University
- Elisabeth Wood, Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor of the Human Environment and Professor of Political Science, Yale University.
Moderated by Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University.