Humanitarianism and Body Economies

This seminar will discuss humanitarianism from practical, political and conceptual perspectives. Humanitarian takes many forms, ranging from medical assistance to victims of sexual violence in conflict to migration management of displaced populations, and takes its point of departure in the suffering (but also the help-able) body (Fassin 2012). The crisis of humanitarianism is compounded today by the mass displacement of populations who seek asylum outside of their home countries or outside of the global South. How do practices of care within this system contribute to the nurturing of some bodies and the abandonment or displacement of others? How does humanitarianism participate in body economies, how is it subject to forces of capital, and does it undermine its own premise that the suffering body speaks truth to power?

Lectures by:

Miriam Ticktin (Institute on Migration and Mobility)

Finn Stepputat (DIIS)

Henri Myrttinen (International Alert)