Biopolitics

What does it mean to be a political animal? This classical question, which has accompanied political thought since antiquity, acquires renewed urgency in modernity, where political rationalities are increasingly articulated through the management of bodies and populations. Michel Foucault’s pioneering analyses of the 1970s demonstrated that the task of biopolitical studies is to investigate the mechanisms through which power organises, optimises, regulates, and differentiates forms of life. Since then, research on biopolitics has rapidly grown, drawing on diverse theoretical and historical perspectives. Building on these debates, this section seeks to extend and refine the biopolitical canon. It does so by integrating new questions concerning sovereignty, governmentality, and democracy with insights drawn from adjacent fields such as gender studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, environmental humanities, intellectual history, historical epistemology, and science and technology studies. Planned Panels: Innovations in Biopolitical Theory – Chair: Samuel Lindholm Neoliberal and Illiberal Biopolitics – Chair: Jussi Backman Nature, Science, and Health – Chair: Antonio Cimino Gender, Race and Political Violence – Chair: Sara Raimondi