Bad Neighbors: Race and Violence through the Letterbox
Jordanna Bailkin (University of Washington)
Wednesday, 17 September 2025, 16:00 CST
George L. Mosse Humanities Building
5233, Curti Lounge
455 N. Park St.
Madison, WI 53706
Sponsored by:
George L. Mosse Program in History
UW-Madison Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies
UW-Madison Harvey Goldberg Center
This talk focuses on histories of neighboring in Britain and zealous debates about “good” and “bad” neighbors that have characterized our pandemic era. Such debates drew on decades of idealized visions and often disappointing realities of neighboring, embedded in narratives about race, gender, and community. From the 1940s onwards, neighbors in Britain – particularly women and people of color – were governed by constantly shifting expectations and contradictory ideals. As local authorities increasingly pressed neighbors to serve as caregivers, racist tensions between neighbors erupted into violence in the 1970s and 1980s. I consider how states have both needed and negated neighboring from the Second World War to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Jordanna Bailkin is the Jere L. Bacharach Endowed Professor in International Studies in the Department of History at the University of Washington, where she teaches British, European, and imperial history. She is the author of The Culture of Property
(2004), The Afterlife of Empire (2012), and Unsettled (2018), as well as articles on the history of murder in colonial India, tattooing in colonial Burma, decolonization and radio, and the history of archives during decolonization. Her forthcoming book is Friends and Neighbors: Taking Care in Britain.