Call for \;Papers: International Conference \;
\n\;
\nPost-Pandemic Condition: \;Biopolitics in the \;Aftermath of the \;COVID-19
\nConference Date: \;7 \;September\, 2023
\nNational Gallery of Art\, \;Konstitucijos pr. 22\, \;Vilnius
\nThe conference \;&lsquo\;Post-Pandemic Condition: Biopolitics \;in the Aftermath of \;the \;COVID-19&rsquo\; \;revisits the concept of biopolitics by asking how the pandemic has redefined \;the political field and what new concepts and prospects it can offer for conceptualising our post-pandemic condition. \;
\nThe worldwide health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly signalled the need to reconsider\, modify\, and even transform the notion of biopolitics. Numerous attempts to do so were ranging from nearly apocalyptic visions of entirely &lsquo\;negative&rsquo\; biopolitics\, such as Giorgio Agamben&rsquo\;s collection of brief essays \;Where Are We Now? \;(2021)\, to surveillance-friendly &lsquo\;positive&rsquo\; biopolitics\, exemplified by Benjamin Bratton&rsquo\;s \;The Revenge of the Real \;(2021). Most of these\, however\, were published at the very peak of the pandemic\, and therefore mostly based on different approaches of \;national \;governments towards the management of the pandemic and their implementation\, and not the consequences of the pandemic biopolitics itself. \;
\nRoughly three years after the breakout of the pandemic\, it is time to revisit the notion of biopolitics itself \;and \;to question its viability in the aftermath of COVID-19. \;Many theoreticians emphasize that the pandemic cannot be separated from the existing social and political conditions which include nationalism\, racism\, global inequality\, poverty\, violence against women and LGBTQ+ people\, and environmental destruction. In enduring pandemic times these conditions were radicalised and made even more unbearable. At the same time theoreticians express a need to overcome these radical inequalities and reimagine a &lsquo\;shared or common world&rsquo\; (Judith Butler)\, &lsquo\;the world in common&rsquo\; (Achille Mbembe) that would ensure a universal right to live.
\nThe universal right to live \;belongs to the universal community of earthly inhabitants\, human and \;nonhuman. This implies that the conventional model of individual rights and freedoms \;should be revisited in favour of communal forms of existence. As Judith Butler points out\, the term &lsquo\;pandemic&rsquo\; derives etymologically from \;pan-demos\, all the people\, or people everywhere\, or something that crosses over or spread over and through the people (What World Is This?\, \;p. 5). Thus the post-pandemic condition implies that thinking about the insular and autonomous individual should be abandoned since every individual discovers itself in the position of interconnectedness and encroachment. The post-pandemic condition forces us to rethink ourselves in terms of common immunity (Roberto Esposito)\, the transindividual (Etienne Balibar)\, or holobiont (Bruno Latour)\, and to acknowledge our debt to global ecology. \; \; \; \; \;
\nKey areas of inquiry could include but are by no means limited to: \;
\n&bull\; pandemic and paradigmatic shifts within \;and beyond \;the notion of \;biopolitics\; \;
\n&bull\; political\, economic\, racial\, \;and \;social implications of pandemic biopolitics\; \;
\n&bull\; \;new philosophical\, political and social imaginaries\; \;
\n&bull\; the individual &ldquo\;self&rdquo\; and other forms of communal existence\; \;
\n&bull\; immunity and immunization VS community-oriented approaches after the pandemic\; \;
\n&bull\; individual rights and freedoms VS universal right to live\; \;
\n&bull\; post-pandemic governmentality VS environmentality\;
\n&bull\; ecological crisis\, biopolitics\, and the Anthropocene\;
\n&bull\; affective and artistic expressions of the post-pandemic condition.
\nConference format: in person \;
\nSubmission guidelines: \;
\nDeadline for abstract submission: 1 June 2023
\nNotification of acceptance: 10 June 2023
\nConference dates: 7 September 2023
\nAn abstract (300 words) with a short biography should be sent to the organizers: denis.petrina@LKTI.LT
\nThe conference is organized by the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute
\nand the Research Council of Lithuania. \;
\nThe conference will take place in the \;National Gallery of Art\, \;Konstitucijos pr. 22\, \;Vilnius.
ORGANIZER;CN=Denis Petrina: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR