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Papers by Isaac Veysey-White

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2023

This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictio... more This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictional viral pandemic that gives rise to a brutal military regime, and considers how such a dystopian depiction of pandemics can aid in understanding lived realities with COVID-19 and what these may mean for future social pacts following the global pandemic. Written in 2019 before the onset of COVID-19, the comic enables an analysis of extant social anxieties that existed prior to the pandemic as depicted in Un fantasma, as well as a comparison of this dystopia with what actually came to pass. By engaging with the history of contagion narratives, and also with scholars of dystopia studies, and necropolitics, this article argues that fears of rising authoritarianism that predated the COVID-19 pandemic remain relevant (and in some cases have been augmented) since its outbreak. The comic is an admonitory work; Sanz Martínez’s imagining of what might come to pass in a worldwide pandemic reminds readers what they must strive to prevent during the pandemic in which they are actively living.

Spanish and Portuguese Review, 2020

Although Afro-Hispanic literature has a lot to offer the field of Hispanic studies, it has been l... more Although Afro-Hispanic literature has a lot to offer the field of Hispanic studies, it has been largely ignored in the academy. In this essay, I consider one of these pieces of literature and highlight its importance to the modern era. Trifonia Melibea Obono's La Bastarda (2016) emerges as a particularly subversive novel, celebrating the queer subject in Africa. Basing this work upon the conceptualizations of Judith Butler, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, and María Lugones surrounding queer theory and the coloniality of gender, I analyze how Melibea Obono uses the queer subject as a site of resistance in postcolonial Equatorial Guinea, and in postcolonial Fang society especially. Queer performativity is presented as a useful site of resistance against the coloniality of gender and sexuality in postcolonial Fang society, and through it, the queer woman of color, repressed as she is by Eurocentric, patriarchal norms, can find her liberation.

G3 (Bethesda, Md.), Aug 30, 2017

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to ... more The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (~5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (>18.7 Mb) in Drosophila ananassae To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4 Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7 Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in ...

Drafts by Isaac Veysey-White

Hispania [IN PRESS, ACCEPTED APRIL 2024]

Contemporary Spanish literature continues to be informed by the 2008 economic crisis and neoliber... more Contemporary Spanish literature continues to be informed by the 2008 economic crisis and neoliberalism. Dystopia is relevant to this discourse, but the dystopian fiction of the Spanish author Guillem López has not been considered extensively in the academy. This paper considers López’s La polilla en la casa del humo (2016) and El último sueño (2018). While prior scholarship has acknowledged these novels’ anti-neoliberal commentaries, it has neither considered them together, nor analyzed their themes of religious authoritarianism. Consulting with scholars of neoliberalism, dystopia, and literature of crisis, this analysis reveals that these novels parallel the hegemonic shift from Francoist Spain to contemporary, neoliberal Spain. In this they portray crises such as the 2008 crash as the result of manipulations of political and economic elites, and suggest that solidarity and collective action are the catalysts for change. Thus, following Pablo Valdivia, they allow readers to develop a cognitive map opposed to the neoliberal “reality” in which they live, making visible the suffering of precarious and disinherited citizens. This weaving of critiques presents contemporary Spanish neoliberalism as a real-life dystopia, predicated on the misery of the precarious citizen.

Speculative Spain , 2021

A digital map that examines the relationship between works of speculative fiction and the places ... more A digital map that examines the relationship between works of speculative fiction and the places in Spain that inspired them: https://speculativespain.com/

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2023

This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictio... more This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictional viral pandemic that gives rise to a brutal military regime, and considers how such a dystopian depiction of pandemics can aid in understanding lived realities with COVID-19 and what these may mean for future social pacts following the global pandemic. Written in 2019 before the onset of COVID-19, the comic enables an analysis of extant social anxieties that existed prior to the pandemic as depicted in Un fantasma, as well as a comparison of this dystopia with what actually came to pass. By engaging with the history of contagion narratives, and also with scholars of dystopia studies, and necropolitics, this article argues that fears of rising authoritarianism that predated the COVID-19 pandemic remain relevant (and in some cases have been augmented) since its outbreak. The comic is an admonitory work; Sanz Martínez’s imagining of what might come to pass in a worldwide pandemic reminds readers what they must strive to prevent during the pandemic in which they are actively living.

Spanish and Portuguese Review, 2020

Although Afro-Hispanic literature has a lot to offer the field of Hispanic studies, it has been l... more Although Afro-Hispanic literature has a lot to offer the field of Hispanic studies, it has been largely ignored in the academy. In this essay, I consider one of these pieces of literature and highlight its importance to the modern era. Trifonia Melibea Obono's La Bastarda (2016) emerges as a particularly subversive novel, celebrating the queer subject in Africa. Basing this work upon the conceptualizations of Judith Butler, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, and María Lugones surrounding queer theory and the coloniality of gender, I analyze how Melibea Obono uses the queer subject as a site of resistance in postcolonial Equatorial Guinea, and in postcolonial Fang society especially. Queer performativity is presented as a useful site of resistance against the coloniality of gender and sexuality in postcolonial Fang society, and through it, the queer woman of color, repressed as she is by Eurocentric, patriarchal norms, can find her liberation.

G3 (Bethesda, Md.), Aug 30, 2017

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to ... more The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (~5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster, but it is substantially larger (>18.7 Mb) in Drosophila ananassae To identify the major contributors to the expansion of the F element and to assess their impact, we improved the genome sequence and annotated the genes in a 1.4 Mb region of the D. ananassae F element, and a 1.7 Mb region from the D element for comparison. We find that transposons (particularly LTR and LINE retrotransposons) are major contributors to this expansion (78.6%), while Wolbachia sequences integrated into the D. ananassae genome are minor contributors (0.02%). Both D. melanogaster and D. ananassae F element genes exhibit distinct characteristics compared to D element genes (e.g., larger coding spans, larger introns, more coding exons, lower codon bias), but these differences are exaggerated in ...

Hispania [IN PRESS, ACCEPTED APRIL 2024]

Contemporary Spanish literature continues to be informed by the 2008 economic crisis and neoliber... more Contemporary Spanish literature continues to be informed by the 2008 economic crisis and neoliberalism. Dystopia is relevant to this discourse, but the dystopian fiction of the Spanish author Guillem López has not been considered extensively in the academy. This paper considers López’s La polilla en la casa del humo (2016) and El último sueño (2018). While prior scholarship has acknowledged these novels’ anti-neoliberal commentaries, it has neither considered them together, nor analyzed their themes of religious authoritarianism. Consulting with scholars of neoliberalism, dystopia, and literature of crisis, this analysis reveals that these novels parallel the hegemonic shift from Francoist Spain to contemporary, neoliberal Spain. In this they portray crises such as the 2008 crash as the result of manipulations of political and economic elites, and suggest that solidarity and collective action are the catalysts for change. Thus, following Pablo Valdivia, they allow readers to develop a cognitive map opposed to the neoliberal “reality” in which they live, making visible the suffering of precarious and disinherited citizens. This weaving of critiques presents contemporary Spanish neoliberalism as a real-life dystopia, predicated on the misery of the precarious citizen.

Speculative Spain , 2021

A digital map that examines the relationship between works of speculative fiction and the places ... more A digital map that examines the relationship between works of speculative fiction and the places in Spain that inspired them: https://speculativespain.com/