8th Annual Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship Conference: "Eyes on Surveillance: (In)security in Everyday Life"

Description

The theme of the interdisciplinary 8th Annual Johns Hopkins University Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship Conference is "Eyes on Surveillance: (In)security in Everyday Life."

This year's conference interrogates the normalization of surveillance in our everyday life. Going beyond surveillance as a buzzword, the conference will present interdisciplinary research that considers what might constitute the monitoring of bodies and actions across a variety of lived experience. To deepen our understanding of surveillance, we ask: How can we critically think about the ways constant scrutiny exacerbates, rather than resolves danger, risk and fear, often for marginalized groups? Can we imagine surveillance as something that multiplies modes of insecurity rather than reducing them?

Dr. Bernard Harcourt, a professor of Law and Political Science at Columbia University, will deliver the conference keynote: "From the Expository Society to the Counterrevolution: How Surveillance Made Possible the Counterinsurgency Paradigm of Governing." The keynote is April 5, 6:15-8 p.m., in Olin Hall, Room 305.

The conference will conclude with a roundtable titled "Surveillance on the Ground." The roundtable is April 6, 4-6 p.m., in Levering Hall, Sherwood Room. Panelists include:

• Dornethia Taylor, co-coordinator with Black Lives Matter DC's Direct Action Pod
• David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland
• Emily Manna, policy analyst for Open the Government
• Dr. Stuart Schrader, a lecturer and assistant research scientist in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins (roundtable chair)

Please view the daily schedule, specific event locations, and session speakers and topics online. Follow the event on Twitter @RICJHU.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Departments of Anthropology, History, Political Science, and Sociology; the Programs in East Asian Studies, International Studies, Islamic Studies, Latin American Studies; and the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute.