ILLUSTRATED BOOK REVIEW: “Bodies as Evidence. Security, Knowledge, and Power”

by Thomas Hoppenheit on May 2, 2019

The human body has become a privileged “bearer and signifier” of in/security – so the main message of the book “Bodies as Evidence. Security, Knowledge, and Power” (eds. Maguire, Rao, Zurawski 2018). As such, body-evidence relations can be turned into an insightful object of inquiry, as the nine thematic chapters of the book show. Jean Comaroff praises the book precisely for illuminating “the core drama of our times, when radical uncertainty feeds a fetishism of evidence, when alt-authoritarianism breeds a strange new relativism and an insidious obsession with fakery” (book-cover).

Illustrated book review by Monika Weissensteiner, continue reading via https://www.surveillance-studies.org and have a look at the animated illustrations (video) of the first chapter below.

CFP: Special Issue of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology on ‘Security and Morality’

by Thomas Hoppenheit on April 12, 2019

Call for Papers on ‘Security and Morality’ for a special issue of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology. 

Following the Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives conference organized by the EASA Anthropology of Security Network at the University of Oslo in March 2019, the open-access peer-reviewed Journal of Extreme Anthropology has decided to dedicate a special issue to the topic, with a planned publication date of April 2020. The special issue will be jointly edited by Tereza Kuldova & Jardar Østbø. 

While some of the conference participants have expressed their interest in contributing already, the Journal of Extreme Anthropology invites additional papers (please refer to the CFP below), and submissions in different formats: articles, essays, book reviews, photo essays, and experimental submissions. Those who did not attend the conference and are interested in submitting a paper should send an abstract of 250 words to the editor-in-chief at: tereza.kuldova@iakh.uio.no by 15th of May 2019. Submission date for the issue and those whose abstracts have been accepted will be: 31st October 2019. Articles are published Online First, and may thus appear individually prior to the full issue. For more, please refer to the journal website https://journals.uio.no/index.php/JEA or get in touch with the editor-in-chief.

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Out now: Security Blurs

by Thomas Hoppenheit on April 12, 2019

Security Blurs:The Politics of Plural Security Provision

edited by Tessa Diphoorn and Erella Grassiani, London: Routledge, 2018

Contributors: Laurens Bakker, Lars Buur, Tessa Diphoorn, Erella Grassiani, Rivke Jaffe, Line Jakobsen, Helene Maria Kyed, Erika Robb Larkins, Perle Møhl, Moritz Schuberth, Atreyee Sen and Jeremy Siegman

To order the book please click here.
For a first look into the book visit Google Books.


Recapping the Conference

by Thomas Hoppenheit on April 12, 2019

The ASN Conference “Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives” was held onMarch 28 – 29, 2019, at the University of Oslo.

The conference provided a productive platform to explore security through a focus on morality and to share and exchange on research-projects at different stages. Participants greatly welcomed the conference topic and opportunity to analyse the security-morality nexus in their respective fields of research on counter-terrorism, humanitarianism, biker-clubs, migration control, policing, ‘community’ cohesion, victim-support programs and more (see program). The topic also opened a space for reflections about the ethical challenges in doing research in a politically and morally highly charged field.

Geographically, the case studies presented at the conference explored security-morality configurations in different EU countries, as well as in the US, Russia, Mexico, the Middle-East and in the South Pacific. The conference brought together around thirty colleagues from across the disciplines of anthropology, political science, social work, law and criminology. On the first evening, Katja Franko Aas’ keynote lecture addressed the moral economy of migration control. The conference concluded with two book-launches: “Security Blurs: The Politics of Plural Security Provision”, presented by Tessa Diphoorn and Erella Grassiani and “How Outlaws Win Friends and Influence People”, by Tereza Kuldova.

For the realisation of the conference we are thankful for the funding support received from the European Association of Social Anthropologist (EASA), the Ludwigs-Maximilians Universitaet Muenchen (LMU), and the hosting institution University of Oslo (UiO).

A special thanks to all the participants and to Tereza Kuldova for hosting the ASN conference.

Out now: Der Alltag der (Un-)Sicherheit.

by Thomas Hoppenheit on March 5, 2019

Der Alltag der (Un-)Sicherheit. Ethnografisch-kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf die Sicherheitsgesellschaft (in German)

edited by Alexandra Schwell and Katharina Eisch-Angus, Berlin: Panama Verlag, 2018

Contributors: Niklas Barth, Katharina Eisch-Angus, Stefan Groth, Mark Maguire, Kai Nowak, Christoph Paret, Johanna Rolshoven, Antonius Schneider, Alexandra Schwell, Maria Schwertl und Nils Zurawski

To order the book please click here.
Download an abstract and more details hereas pdf.


Conference Update: Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives – Registration and Program

by Thomas Hoppenheit on March 2, 2019

With the program mapped out you can now register for the conference via this form.

To see the program you can download it here as a pdf.

Conference Program

Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives

University of Oslo, March 28 – 29, 2019

Room: HF-12

Faculty of Humanities 

Niels Treschows Hus, 12th floor

Niels Henrik Abels vei 36, 0313 Oslo

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cfp: Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives, March 28 – 29, 2019 at the University of Oslo, Norway

by Thomas Hoppenheit on November 18, 2018

The [Anthropology of Security] network in EASA is making a cfp for the 2019 network conference.

Security and Morality: Critical Anthropological Perspectives

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words, including a short bio (100 words) to Tereza Kuldova by January 10, 2019.

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