Precarious Life/Vida Precaria 2: Borders, Citizenship, Agency, Otherness

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract

The conditions of precariousness are prevalent in Latin American life: dispossession, hunger, violence, fear. These conditions have typically emerged under the name of international interdependency – opening borders and increasing cultural interdependency. The interrogation of interdependency and interculturality have been at the heart of LASA’s Culture, Power and Politics (CPP) section since its inception in 1997. At this critical juncture in Latin American history, how do we reformulate these core principles in order to minimize precarious life, rather than promote it? Do we seek “global community” as an palliative, or do we seek something else entirely? “Precarious Life / Vida Precária” is a series of workshops convened by CPP to envision new modes of interdependency as ethical, political, cultural and/or theoretical stances against the “shock doctrines” of colonial, liberal and/or neoliberal rule. “Borders, Citizenship, Agency, Otherness” approaches a complex set of questions: How do borderlands serve to constitute or disrupt conceptions of national interest or national security? How does movement across borderlands serve to constitute or de-constitute immigrant bodies as “citizen”, “denizen” or even “human”? How are territorial imperatives made manifest along borders that are evermore rigid militarily and yet evermore fluid economically, socially, culturally?

Sub Track

• Section Presentation

Session Organizer

• Justin A Read, University of Buffalo

Chair

• Justin A Read, University of Buffalo

Presenters

• Jennifer Bickham Mendez, College of William and Mary

• Natalia Deeb-Sossa, University of California/Davis

• Abraham Acosta, University of Arizona

• Monika Gosin, College of William & Mary

• Juan E Poblete, University of California/Santa Cruz

• Gilberto A Rosas, University of Illinois

• Angela C Stuesse, University of South Florida