(Post-)pandemic somatechnics, neoliberalism, and the return to (academic) normalcy: Digital conversations
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Date
2024-11
Authors
Rahbari, Ladan
Geerts, Evelien
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Published Version
Abstract
This essay consists of a set of digital (post-)pandemic email correspondence held between a political sociologist and an interdisciplinary philosopher working at western European universities while the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly unfolded itself. Starting from an unsettling point in time in 2021, during which vaccination strategies and numerous eugenic pandemic containment measures were being discussed, the authors touch upon issues as diverse as the importance of embodied feminist theorising in pandemic crisis times; neoliberal extractive capitalism’s influence on society, pandemic (mis)management, and higher education; the problematic (post-)pandemic business-as-usual-narrative; grief, mourning, and trauma; the power of anger and protesting; and the forced return to normal(cy). These conversations are held together by an irruptions-based methodology based on Deleuze and Guattari (2000) . This methodology tries to make sense of the (post-)pandemic as a disruptive event while forming the backdrop for conversational and critical theoretical snippets, self-designed memes, and critical race, queer, disability, and feminist theoretical perspectives that all conceptualise (post-)pandemic somatechnics as a ‘form of ethico-political critical practice’ (Sullivan and Murray 2011 : vii).
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Keywords
Academia , COVID-19 pandemic , Care , Crisis , (Critique of) neoliberalism , Feminist theory , (Post-)pandemic somatechnics , Normal(cy)
Citation
Rahbari, L. and Geerts, E. (2024) '(Post-)pandemic somatechnics, neoliberalism, and the return to (academic) normalcy: Digital conversations', Somatechnics, 14(3), pp. 285-304. https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2024.0441
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Copyright
© 2024, Edinburgh University Press. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Edinburgh University Press in Somatechnics. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2024.0441