We are seeking chapters that address and explore approaches to utopia and biopolitics, both very broadly conceived. Scientific progress in “improving” the human body and experience has provoked ethical, moral, and policy considerations regarding both intent and results. This edited volume seeks to address questions of utopian drives and desires in these modern advances, as well as the idea of governmental and other institutional interventions into the human body.
The primary aim of the volume is to serve as an interdisciplinary reader on utopian studies and biopolitics. We are interested in contributions both disciplinary and interdisciplinary from across the range of theoretical, methodological, and critical frameworks within the fields of political science, history, sociology, philosophy, bioethics, and public policy. Essays should demonstrate clear links between biopolitics and utopian studies themes.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
-Biometrics: The use of biometrics or biometric authentication technologies and concepts, physiological identification, as well as biological surveillance issues more broadly.
-Environment: Social movements that target environmental concerns; technological advancements offered to mitigate the effects of environmental degradation; or the social and economic impacts of environmental problems.
-Food: Contemporary agricultural practices like genetic modification or the use of technology in food production. Other topics may address food movements in urban agricultural, localism, or organic practices.
-Gender: Gender as an apparatus of biopower; gender-based oppression and discrimination.
-Medicine: Medicine and medical practices designed to “enhance” the human body for therapeutic or non-therapeutic purposes, to include gene therapy, cognitive science advances, and nanotechnology.
-Race: Pseudosciences of race and racial hierarchies; biopolitical state racism; may also be tied to eugenics and/or notions of empire and colonialism.
-Reproduction and/or Eugenics: Practices in assisted reproductive technologies or genetic testing.
-Self: Utopian ideas and personal practices of the body affecting identity, aesthetics/appearance, performance, and health, including body modifications, weight management, and athletics, among others.
-Technology and the body: Biotechnology and its applications for the human body writ large; theoretical frameworks exploring technological solutions for ideas about the utopia of the body.
We also welcome other topics that show a clear connection with these themes.
Please send completed essays of 5,000 to 7,000 words, along with a brief (300 word) biography and a CV to the editors, in either *.rtf (rich text format) or *.doc (MS Word document format), to editors Andrew Byers and Patricia Stapleton (utopianbiopolitics@gmail.com) by April 1, 2014.
Interested collaborators are encouraged to send 500 word abstracts to the co-editors by January 15, 2014, if they would like their topic reviewed before completing a full essay for submission.