John-Baptiste Oduor
John-Baptiste Oduor
Editor, Critic & Translator
I am an Associate Editor at Jacobin Magazine. I write mainly about art, film and politics; sometimes, I translate from German to English in these areas. In 2021, I completed a PhD at the University of Essex on the idea of freedom in the work of the philosopher G.W.F Hegel. I'm currently working on a book on abstract and figurative art. Links to a selection of some of my writing can be found below.
On Culture
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'Statues with Limitations — the Monumental Art of Tavares Strachan'. Apollo Magazine. August 2024
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'The Weight of the World'. Photo essay on the work of Debmalya Ray Choudhuri. Granta 168: Significant Other. 18 July 2024
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‘Whatever That Means’: The Duplicity of Percival Everett’s Literary World. On Cord Jefferson's American Fiction and Percival Everett's novels Erasure and James. Art Review 5 April 2024.
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“The Subject of Painting Is Paint”. On the art and life of Frank Bowling, The Nation. 10 January 2024
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The Politics of Black Figurative Art Today. On Kehinde Wiley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Kerry James Marshall. Frieze 240. January 2024.
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‘The Black Atlantic’ at 30: A Reappraisal. On Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic, ArtReview. 25 October 2023.
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Cynicism Made Janet Malcolm a Great Writer. On Janet Malcolm's career, Jacobin. 12 July 2023.
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Role Play. On the art of Carrie Mae Weems, Sidecar New Left Review. 23 June 2023.
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Je nais sais pas. On the Films of Alice Drop, Sidecar New Left Review. 23. June 2023
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Steve McQueen's Grenfell Will Not Look Away. On Steve McQueen's Grenfell, ArtReview. 12 April 2023
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The Shadows of Stanley Cavell. On the Philosophy of Stanley Cavell, the Nation. 27 October 2022
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The Past and Future of Afro-Futurism. On the Hayward Gallery's In the Black Fantastic Exhibition, ArtReview. 29 July 2022.
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Burnt Terracotta. On the paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sidecar New Left Review. 13 April 2021.
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How Leftist Theory Stopped Making Sense. On post-war European philosophy. Foreign Policy 21 September 2021.
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A Pragmatist Maverick. On the philosophy of Raymond Geuss, New Left Review 125. September/October 2020.
On Politics
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Keir Starmer Will Make Britain Even More Of a US Lapdog. On Labour's foreign policy, Jacobin. 6 July 2024.
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How Britain Became America's Stooge. On Someone Else’s Empire: British Illusions and American Hegemony by Tom Stevenson, Jacobin. 17 November 2023.
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The Right-Wing Bid to Turn Kenya into a Hustler Nation. On Kenyan political economy, Jacobin. 15 May 2022
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Did Elites Really Take Over Identity Politics? On race politics in the US, Jacobin. 27 May 2022.
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Segregation's Sequiturs. On the work of Adolph Reed Jr, New Left Review 136. July/August 2022.
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Red to Black. On the life and career of Charles Mills, Sidecar New Left Review. 27 October 2021.
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Capitalism is Not Natural. On the Agrarian Roots of the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, Tribune. 10 June 2021.