Geography
University of British Columbia

Vanishing Points:
Law, Violence and Exception in the Global War Prison

As one of the preeminent scholars in the areas of human and cultural geography, Derek Gregory has been widely influential across numerous fields in the humanities. Since 9/11 much of his work has focused on the long history of British and American involvement in the Middle East. In particular he traces how centuries of imperial and colonial practice continue to shape global imbalances of power and perception in the region.

Gregory’s lecture will examine how these imbalances of power are currently playing out in the “war on terror” with a focus on the imprisonment and interrogation practices used in the global war prison. His talk will explore the strategic geographical sites of the global war prison including Bagram, Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and the so-called ‘Black Sites,’ showing how they are produced through constantly shifting folds between law and violence.

Derek Gregory is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is the author of The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq (2004) and Geographical Imaginations (1993).

Kane Hall 120
Reception to follow in the Walker-Ames Room.