Creating New Languages of Resistance

"It is rare that a book emerges that generates a distinctive approach to a topic that has consistently piqued the interest of scholars, academics and the professions." - Linda Briskman, Western Sydney University

"Compellingly written, unflinching and inspiring, this book is the product of Tofighian's reflective translation practice, scholarly expertise, and relentless commitment to co-creating a more just society." - Emma Cunliffe, University of British Columbia

"Translation has at once a colonial history and an emancipatory potential. Omid Tofighian's translation practice is everywhere engaged in stretching toward the latter." - Michael R. Griffiths, University of Wollongong

"In this truly intellectual and illuminating endeavour, Tofighian's 'voice' is present as much as his profound and engaging scholarly knowledge. And this is simply brilliant." - Sajad Kabgani, Deakin University

"I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in the atrocities caused by Australia's border violence." - Jyhene Kebsi, Macquarie University

"Tofighian's vision for a collaborative public philosophy is exciting, radical, and clear." - Bri Lee, award-winning author, academic, and activist

"Tofighian's book is a wide-ranging and well-timed intervention, written in a very skilful and accessible prose." - Ali Mirsepassi, New York University

"An incisive and deeply moving interrogation of Australia's brutal border-industrial complex. We have needed a new language to express the horrors of the carceral-border nation-state. Tofighian has given us one in this deeply humane book - that of the refugee." - Kristina Olsson, writer and member of Sisters Inside

"Centering co-creation and relationship-building, his work of translation reveals how he and his collaborators have innovated "new languages of resistance" out of necessity, breaking through not only the physical separation of camps and borders, but also the social imaginary saturated with dehumanizing representations of migrants." - A. Naomi Paik, author of Rightlessness: Testimony & Redress in US Prison Camps Since World War II

"Omid Tofighian offers a master class in intelligent, concerted activism. His work as a translator embraces the full extent of cultural translation, combing language transfer with facilitation, media change, adaptation, elaboration, explanation, political promotion, and interventions in public philosophy." - Anthony Pym, The University of Melbourne

"Here is an important contribution in a multilingual world in desperate need of more cultural bridges." - Hessom Razavi, eye surgeon, essayist and poet

"... the metaphilosophy running through Tofighian's work is not individualistic or merely passive and academic, but a collaborative practice engaging exiled, incacerated, 'illegal' refugees riddled with cares and passions, pushing philosophy beyond the well-guarded borders of the profession towards unchartered territory promising new languages of creative resistance and alternate forms of knowledge production. This is the philosophy of the future." - N. N. Trakakis, Australian Catholic University

"This book takes forward Omid Tofighian's existing work on new languages of creative resistance emerging from Australia's carceral-border archipelago in the Pacific. It envisages a unique public philosophy emerging from this collective intellectual, artistic and political work, a shared philosophical activity that engages with the lived experience of those held in indefinite detention." - Gillian Whitlock, author of Refugee Lives in the Archives. A Pacific Imaginary