Biosecurities, Reterritorializations, and Para-Human Populations
The Biological Futures in a Globalized World (BFGW) program of the Simpson Center for the Humanities is facilitating a year-long initiative to rethink the conceptual foundations for inquiry in contemporary vital politics.
The initiative takes a cue from Michel Foucault’s 1978-79 lectures at the College de France Security, Territory, Population, in which he first thought out the basic elements of what he had come to call biopolitics. In that spirit, this initiative seeks to rethink the meanings and significance of biosecurity, reterritorialization, and para-human populations within the shifting rationalities of contemporary politics, testing their usefulness for ongoing inquiry.
The initiative will consist of one public salon and one concept studio on each of the three terms—biosecurity in the fall quarter, reterritorialization in the winter, and para-human populations in the spring.
The public salons will involve presentations by an invited speaker, whose work exemplifies creative experimentation with the conceptual and pragmatic limits of vital politics. The concept studios will involve collaborative reworking of each term by invited UW faculty and students.
Recordings from the public salons and the work products of the studio sessions will be posted on this website as they become available.
Events
- Biosecurity Concept Studio, November 14th, 3:30-5:30.
- Simon Dalby talk, March 7th 3:30-5:00, Communication 202.
- Michael Hathaway, March 14th, 3:30-5:00, Denny 401.
- Rob Wallace, January 14th, 1:30-3:20, Simpson Center Conference Room.
- Johnson, April 25th, 3:30-5:20.