Rosalind Morris

Rosalind Morris is an anthropologist, cultural theorist, and documentarian who is Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. Her work is addressed to the histories and social lives—including the deaths and afterlives—produced in the interstices of industrial and resource-based capitalism.

Believing that ethnography is a mode of extended listening and learning from others, and that textual practice is a dimension of analytic practice, Morris’s work encompasses a variety of forms and media, from scholarly articles to essayistic prose, and ethnographic monographs. Her media works include documentary film and expanded cinematic installation. Among her recent works are the documentary film, We Are Zama Zama, which premiered as an official selection of the ENCOUNTERS International Documentary Film Festival in 202. Her related flexible multi-channel installation, ‘The Zama Zama Project,’ was an official selection of the Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2021. Morris’s poetry has appeared in venues such as Ideas and Futures, Literary Imagination and the Capilano Review, among other publications. Artistic collaborations have been central to Morris’s creative practice. In addition to her collaborations with South African artists, her libretti, co-written with Yvette Christiansë, have been the bases of two operas by the Syrian-born composer, Zaid Jabri.