Health Biopolitics in Literature and Philosophy

Conference at the University of Tartu, 17/18 September 2021

Location: J. Liivi str. 4 - 211 (online participation possible if necessary)

Biopolitics designates the strategies that states use to organise the lives of their citizens not through overt coercion but through the control of reproduction, welfare and health. The notion has been productively used in the analysis of gender, the body, environment, politics, law, social media and surveillance. It has become more relevant than ever in the context of the global COVD-19 pandemic. In our conference we will, on the one hand, discuss different philosophical approaches to biopolitics (e.g. Michael Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, Judith Butler) and, on the other hand cultural representations, especially fiction, as the site of imagining different biopolitical strategies and responses. We will discuss representation from different cultures (US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, China) to show how culture intersects with biopolitics.

The Euroepan Spa team contributes to the conference with two presentations: