New Books Network Transnational Solidarities with Nico Slate
Apr 13, 2026
Nico Slate, historian of democracy and social movements and professor at Carnegie Mellon, explores U.S.–India transnational connections. He discusses why the transnational scale matters. He examines how language and translation reshape race and caste. He traces race–colony and race–caste analogies and debates the limits of broad comparisons for solidarities.
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How A Tuskegee Exhibit Sparked A Career
- Nico Slate's path to studying US–India connections began by chance after seeing a Tuskegee exhibit linking Gandhi and George Washington Carver.
- He traced mutual influences via archival letters and realized South Asians often read US struggles through race and caste lenses.
Transnationalism Connects And Conceals Harms
- Transnational circulation can illuminate solidarities but also spreads harmful ideas like racism and casteism.
- Slate cautions against romanticizing border-crossing and argues history shows both constructive and destructive flows across borders.
Words Build Coalitions And Hide Blind Spots
- Language shapes power and solidarities because words carry political consequences; activists repurpose terms to build coalitions.
- Example: 'colored' was adopted transnationally by South Asians and Africans to forge anti-racist alliances, but often obscured caste issues.
