BOONE, N.C.—On Thursday, April 27, the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian State University will host Columbia University professor and anthropologist Dr. Michael T. Taussig for a public lecture titled “Corpse Magic for Vengeance and its Curious Demise.” The event will take place at 5 p.m. in Room 124-B of the Reich College of Education’s Bryce and Izoria Gordon Gathering Hall, and is free of charge and open to the public.

Taussig’s lecture will focus on the early ethnographic study of magic and its relationship to crime through analogies to police shootings in modern-day United States. The talk will also reveal the up-and-coming study of “killology,” which analyzes how combat and violence affect human psychology.

Taussig is a scholar with published works on topics such as the devil and commodity fetishism; colonial violence and shamanic healing; state terror and writing against terror; the magic of the state; the diary as ethnographic form; drawing and fieldwork notebooks; ecological meltdown and the bodily unconscious. Some of Taussig’s most recent work includes two multimedia theatrical works titled “The Sun” and “The Sea Theatre.” The talk is sponsored by Appalachian’s College of Arts and Sciences and departments of Anthropology, Philosophy and Religion, English and Sustainable Development.

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, three stand-alone programs, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities, social sciences, and the mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university’s strengths, traditions and unique location. Our values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of our students as global citizens. There are approximately 5,850 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

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