Conference "Power, Life and Subjectivation"

Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá / Colombia

Thematic description

Starting from the way in which Michel Foucault´s work has analyzed the subjecting (assujetissant) effect of technologies of power in modern societies, but perhaps even more importantly, attending to the challenging question his work leaves in terms of thinking other ways of subjectivation (subjetivation) as instances of ethico-political critique and resistance in the contemporary world, this colloquium intends to open a space of discussion around these questions. Acknowledging the inflationary and, hence, at times exhausted meaning and status of the term “biopolitics”, the colloquium aims at opening a setting for reflection around these questions beyond the way they are usually framed in current debates. This implies moving towards other important references in the history of political thought which, even if not usually associated to this discussion, could contribute by opening new perspectives, problems, and sharpening our conceptual resources for thinking the possibilities of ethical and political praxis, and intervention, in the context of the modern world (Kant, Nietzsche, Arendt, Derrida, Rancière, among others). Finally, conscious of the way in which all these perspectives of analysis have been articulated mostly in reference to the specificity of European and Anglosaxon historical and cultural conditions, we attempt also to pose as a central question how these categories might need to be displaced and reconfigured in the analysis of other historical and cultural circumstances such as those encountered in Latin America. And at the same time, how these displacements can challenge and complicate, in their turn, the conceptual frameworks that orient this debate.

Speakers

   Juan Ricardo Aparicio (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia): “Biopolitics and abandonment: between the positivities and residues of the margins”.

   María Rita de Assis César (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil): “Biopolitics, governamentality and contemporaryeducation”.

   Amalia Boyer (Universidad Javeriana, Colombia): “Biopolitics and feminism”.

   Santiago Castro (Universidad Javeriana, Colombia): “The Dasein as Design. On the concept of anthropotechnics in Peter Sloterdijk”.

   Gustavo Chirolla (Universidad Javeriana, Colombia): “Ontology, biotechnology and subjectivity modulation”.

   André Duarte (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil): “Hannah Arendt and the thinking of the community: towards the concept of plural communities”.

   Agnes Lugo-Ortiz (University of Chicago, USA): “Subjection scenes: Performativity, Visuality and Law in the beginnings of the Cuban Slaveholder Regime”.

   Federico Luisetti (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA): “Politics of the impersonal: between romanticism and vivid thought”.

   Carlos Manrique (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia): “The transgressive word and the ʻotherlifeʼ: from literature to the cynic gesture”.

   Zandra Pedraza (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia): “The establishment of the government of life: study of the biopolitical practice in Colombia”.

   Laura Quintana (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia): “Political singularization (Arendt) or ethical subjectivation (Foucault): two ways of interruption of the administration of life”.

   Paolo Savoia (Università di Pisa, Italy): “Foucault’s Critique of Political Reason: Individualization and Totalization”.

   Patrick Singy (Union Graduate College, USA): “How to Be a Pervert: Guidelines from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder”.

Schedule

April 13, 2011 at Hemiciclo Lleras 001

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm   Opening lecture (Agnes Lugo-Ortiz)

April 14, 2011 at Auditorio C - Edificio ML

9:00 am - 11:00 am   PANEL 1: Foucault: ethical subjetivation and political resistance (Carlos Manrique and Paolo Savoia)

11:00 am - 11:30 am   Recess

11:30 am - 1:30 pm   PANEL 2: Biopolitics and the production of the human (Santiago Castro and Zandra Pedraza)

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm   Lunch

3:00 pm - 5:00 pm   PANEL 3: Arendt, singularization and community (André Duarte and Laura Quintana)

April 15, 2011 at Auditorio C - Edificio ML

9:00 am - 11:00 am   PANEL 4, session 1: Government of life and marginalization (Juan Ricardo Aparicio, Maria Rita de Assis César and Gustavo Chirolla)

11:00 am - 12:00 pm   Recess

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm   PANEL 4, session 2: Government of life and marginalization (Juan Ricardo Aparicio, Maria Rita de Assis César and Gustavo Chirolla)

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm   Lunch

2:30 pm - 4:30 pm   PANEL 5: Production of sexuality and gender technologies (Amalia Boyer and Patrick Singy)

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm   Recess

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm   Closing lecture (Federico Luisetti)