ANTH 303 - Abject Bodies

Prerequisite, ANTH 102 or SOC 101 or WGST 101 or WMST 101 or HUM 205 or consent of instructor. Abjection or “the state of being cast off” resonates with communities that have been neglected, marginalized, maimed, or systematically annihilated through acts of state violence and genocide. This course will explore the feminist underpinnings of Julia Kristeva’s “abjection” and follow its broad theoretical applications within contemporary anthropological and interdisciplinary work. How is systemic violence embodied? To what extent are bodies rendered object of regulation and/or object of destruction? In what way has violence and inequality informed resistance movements and resilience? This course will ask students to consider how state power interacts with populations it deems abject and how this act of casting off is marked or memorialized upon flesh. Furthermore, the capacity for sustainable change and community-driven direct action will be assessed in-light of abjection. Case studies will center abjection, necropolitics, and state violence through highlighting cross-cultural examples of ableism, anti-Blackness, fatphobia, anti-indigeneity, and queerphobia in North America and around the world. Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered every year.) 3 credits