THE 4TH TECHNOSOMATA WORKSHOP: Transhistorical and Intersectional Perspectives, 5-6 July, via zoom (original) (raw)
Related papers
Technosomata. Transhistorical and Intersectional Perspectives
2021
Panel 1: Life and Techne Sofia Varino Can Zöe Speak? Viral Biopolitics in the Anthropocene My presentation engages with the concept of zöe and the classical Greek distinction between zöe (natural life) and bios (political life) as a gendered binary brought into crisis in over-developed industrialized societies by issues ranging from climate change to artificial life and the current coronavirus pandemic. Mobilizing contemporary critiques by authors like Alexander Weheliye, Rosi Braidotti, Roberto Esposito and Giorgio Agamben, I examine how zöe has radically transformed (un)natural and (bio)political life in the so-called Anthropocene. I focus on zoonotic disease transmission as a model for considering how zöe might be capable of both linguistic and pathogenic communicability, contaminating what might have once appeared to be the purity of the “human” realm and contesting foundational distinctions between body and mind, nature and politics, matter and language. Maria Gerolemou Women i...
2021
In the recent years, the relationship between race and digital technologies has gained new momentum. Emergent forms of engineered inequalities, from the governance of life and death through biotechnologies and algorithms to the commodification of bodies in platform capitalism or the biopolitical management of b/ordering are now at the core of the study of the dynamics of power. The aim of this course is to understand how racial logics enter the design of technology and how race itself operates as a tool of division that undermines social justice. Moving beyond both technological determinism and the idea of technological neutrality, we will explore how social practices, norms, and relations are a constitutive part of technological design and function. In doing so, we will not only discuss the role technologies play in the production, stabilization, and destabilization of social (power) relations, democracy, and knowledge, but also how race itself functions as a technology. Unpacking multiple black boxes, we will arrive at a nuanced understanding of intersectional perspectives for the study of race and technology. Reading classics in social theory as well as recent contributions to feminist and critical race studies, the participants will gain a broad understanding of the interstices of the study of race, racism, and technology. In addition, we will consider contributions from art and culture to expand our themes of interest. We will use a course blog to allow for novel forms of theoretical inquiry and the discussion of concrete examples from politics, art, and technology in the form of blog posts. This also aims to foster mutual engagement with each other's contributions. Master seminar: willingness to read and discuss difficult texts; basic knowledge in sociology of technology , science and technology studies, and critical race theory Participation requirements (Teilnahmeschein)-two contributions to the course blog (c. 500 words) and two comments to the contributions of others Alternatively: a review essay (3 pages) for a core text on the syllabus; to be submitted during the term-participation in the Zoom meetings Examination requirements (Leistungsschein)-see above-term paper (c. 15 pages); to be discussed with the course instructors; deadline: 15 Oct. 2021 Contact:
Feminist Encounters, 2025
Feminism has a long history of wrestling with technologies: not only with the inequalities and blind spots inherent in research, production, and marketing, but also with the effects of different technological forms and arrangements on social relationships, ways of life, and on the body. Technologically permeated societies are a global reality, and feminist, queer, critical race, decolonial, and crip theories are pivotal in offering critical analyses and ways of imagining, producing, and using technologies differently. This issue of Feminist Encounters sets out to reinspect the entanglements between technology and imagination from a range of feminist perspectives in disciplines like STS, philosophy and critical theory, media history and media archaeology, cultural history, and cultural and comparative literature studies.
This paper seeks to explore the concept of «intersectionality» through suggestions taken from the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies. We explore three exemplary stories of Italian women engaged in science and technology through the categories of «space», «knowledge», «practice», and «objects». In doing so, we introduce a connection between STS and recent contributions within the debate on intersectionality in order to shed light on sociomaterial issues which have been a neglected aspect of intersectional analysis. We suggest that a similar analysis brings the debate on intersectionality beyond a human-centered view towards a post-humanist perspective. Keywords: Intersectionality, science and technology studies, feminist studies, women, science, technology.
American Anthropologist, 2006
Applying this methodology to the East End results in a robust analysis of change in this fascinating, small, autonomous, and free community. The transformational model Armstrong employs is flexible, allowing him to examine both short-term and long-term social and spatial trends within the community. Historical archaeologists will find his functional analysis of interest, while scholars of the Caribbean in general will find the case study of the East End community very appealing, as it underscores the diversity of Caribbean experience beyond the plantation. Creole Transformation from Slavery to Freedom is a well-written and timely book that addresses current methodological, topical, and theoretical advances in both historical archaeology and historical anthropology more generally. All anthropologists with an interest in the past will find this book a valuable addition to their library. Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality.
The Palgrave Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology
The Palgrave Handbook of the Anthropology of Technology, 2022
This Handbook offers an overview of the thriving and diverse field of anthropological studies of technology. It features 39 original chapters, each reviewing the state of the art of current research and enlivening the field of study through ethnographic analysis of human-technology interfaces, forms of social organisation, technological practices and/or systems of belief and meaning in different parts of the world. The Handbook is organised around some of the most important characteristics of anthropological studies of technology today: the diverse knowledge practices that technologies involve and on which they depend; the communities, collectives, and categories that emerge around technologies; anthropology’s contribution to proliferating debates on ethics, values, and morality in relation to technology; and infrastructures that highlight how all technologies are embedded in broader political economies and socio-historical processes that shape and often reinforce inequality and discrimination while also generating diversity. All chapters share a commitment to human experiences, embodiments, practices, and materialities in the daily lives of those people and institutions involved in the development, manufacturing, deployment, and/or use of particular technologies.