“I was gone before I left,” writes Grant Farred in his compelling philosophical meditation, Diaspora-in-Place. Building on a concept he introduced in his critique The Perversity of Gratitude, Farred rethinks diaspora as not just physical deracination and relocation, but also a state of being in exile at home while remaining, visibly, in place. Partially the consequence of growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Farred extends the concept to “the Palestinian condition” of living in/out of place in Gaza.

Divided into a series of witty fragments, evocative epigrams, and sobering aphorisms, Diaspora-in-Place builds on thinkers ranging from Edward Said and Jacques Derrida, to the poetry of Olivia Elias, to musicians Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane to examine how individuals process their national identity and subjecthood in a place where they feel out of place.

Farred writes eloquently about this expansive but not universal contradiction as being “a mobile immobility” or “an immobile mobility.” In doing so, he offers an entirely new and provocative way of conceiving how we understand diaspora.

Grant Farred is the author of The Perversity of Gratitude: An Apartheid Education; A Sports Odyssey: My Ithaca Journal; The Burden of Over-representation: Race, Sport, and Philosophy; Long Distance Love: A Passion for Football; and the editor of Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures (all Temple).