Viral Biopower: Emergence and proliferation of HIV and its consequence for global life and culture

• In Event: 3151 - Theory Section Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 7. Theoretical Approaches to Global Change and Challenges – A

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of HIV in Leopold’s Congo, its global proliferation and cultural construction. It argues that imperialism and slavery are implicated in the emergence of the HIV virus, in the radical reshaping of the geography along the Congo River Basin. The paper then traces the relationship between the virus and four ethnographic subjects as case studies from across the globe to understand HIV’s multifarious becoming and how it defies easy categorization through materialist or constructivist theories of culture. The first subject is Pan troglodytes troglodytes, a chimpanzee, and the original source of the virus. The second is T, a 21 year-old gay man who dreams of becoming viral. Our third case examines the emergence of HIV through consideration of Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower. Finally, we turn to Ursula an HIV+ woman from Botswana who used her HIV status to claim political asylum in Canada. The interaction of the virus with each one of these subjects challenges easy apprehension by either constructivism or materialism challenging the theoretical boundaries of culture. The ethnographic case studies are used to refine Foucault’s theory of biopower and biopolitics as a theory with the capacity for interpreting global emergence of viral cultures.

Author

• Dean R. Ray, York University