NeMLA 2022 Roundtable: Care With(out) and Against the State

Alya Ansari Announcement
Location
Minnesota, United States
Subject Fields
Social History / Studies, Political Science, Political History / Studies, Philosophy, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies

This roundtable is part of the 53rd annual convention of the NeMLA, held March 10-13, 2022, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Care With(out) and Against the State 

This roundtable uses the figuration of the state in order to probe the question of “care”—broadly defined—in the 21st century. How does the state organize the distribution of care, and who is permitted to avail of its services? How does the state involve itself in the care work that enables processes of social reproduction? And how might a stateless society reconfigure relations of solidarity and care? These questions (and others that they provoke) are particularly salient in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has necessitated an unprecedented involvement of the state in the private lives of its citizens, and transnational agitation around the Black Lives Matter movement, which has enabled the exploration of mutual aid and care networks outside of the framework of the state. In a roundtable setting, panelists will collectively interrogate how care networks function in our current conjuncture and how these networks might be created and sustained outside of and in opposition to the contemporary state. 3-10 participants will give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate.

We welcome abstract submissions pertaining, but not limited to: the Marxist/socialist state, the limits of the state, the state as a site of contestation, social reproduction, citizenship, statelessness, solidarity and mutual aid, care work, the welfare state, and other historical confluences between the state and various networks of care.

Please submit 300-word abstracts by September 30th, 2021, through the NeMLA portal: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19163, and direct any queries to either of the roundtable co-chairs: Alya Ansari (ansar060@umn.edu) and Thomas McGlone (tmcglone@villanova.edu).

Contact Information

Alya Ansari (ansar060@umn.edu), Thomas McGlone (tmcglone@villanova.edu)

(roundtable co-chairs, NeMLA 2022)