The State and the Dynamics of Enslavement, From Past to Present -13-15 February

Preamble

The state is inherently implicated in dynamics of enslavement: through the slave systems of classical antiquity, imperial processes of colonialism and the rise of industrial capitalism, sovereignties have persistently depended on centralizing mechanisms that violently manage people, land, grain and money. While state power has guaranteed the ownership of the productive labour of other human beings – defining institutionalized slavery – enslavement extends well beyond this relation. It emerges in the family, education system, different class relations (including gender, race, ethnicity), the failures of different instances of emancipation and suffrage, and in the very conception of the individual subject of rights. We therefore take the slave-master relation – a dialectic that gives rise to enduring slave mentalities (Hegel 1807) and moralities (Nietzsche 1887) – as still critical to understanding emerging forms exploitation in a contemporary context of state corporatization. The Dynamics of Enslavement will be a 3-day workshop that will consider the relationship between forms of oppression and emancipation and re-evaluate institutionally recognized forms of slavery through contemporary phenomena such as digitalization, human trafficking, mass incarceration, and the coercive utilization of itinerant human populations for political ends. The conference is dedicated to the memory of Joel Kahn, Professor (emeritus) of Anthropology at La Trobe University. Friend to many of us, Joel was an important figure in the application of Marxist theory to anthropology, particularly through the establishment of the journal Critique of Anthropology, and the relation between ethnography and global social movements. Appreciating the new pathways being developed by the teaching staff in Anthropology at Deakin University, Joel joined us as Honorary Professor in 2016 only to lose his battle with cancer in May 2017.

Please find attached the program for the enslavement workshop I’m running at Deakin Downtown Feb 13-15.   Program The Dynamics of Enslavement – Public Final_

The workshop is open to Deakin colleagues. Anyone wishing to attend is asked to contact Rohan Bastin – contact details below.

 

Rohan Bastin
Associate Professor of Anthropology

School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Faculty of Arts and Education
Deakin University, Australia,  Geelong, Vic 3220

Tel. +61 3 5227 1366
Email: [email protected]