Diagnosing Resistance
Hannah Zeavin is a scholar, writer, and editor whose work centers on the history of human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, and psychiatry), the history of technology and media, feminist science and technology studies, and media theory. Zeavin is an Assistant Professor of the History of Science and New Media in the Department of History and The Berkeley Center for New Media at UC Berkeley.
Hannah recently published a piece on titled Diagnosing Resistance, which focused on, "What Aaron Bushnell’s death says about power, protest, and pathology"
Here is an excerpt from the piece:
AARON BUSHNELL WAS a twenty-five-year-old active Air Force member, employed as a cybersecurity expert. After growing up in a conservative religious sect on Cape Cod, he joined the US military a few years after Donald Trump was elected. Soon after George Floyd was murdered, Bushnell had a political awakening, became critical of the military, and started participating in mutual-aid projects. An autodidact who eventually identified as an anarchist, Bushnell moved from San Antonio to Ohio, where he prepared to transition out of the military. You likely know how his story ended: on Sunday, February 25, 2024, he died by self-immolation outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza. He wore his military uniform. As the poet Wendy Trevino recently wrote: