CFP - ASA 2015, "Technologies of Misery and [In]security in the Military-Industrial Complex"

[Carrie Andersen]

Hi everyone -

I'm assembling a panel proposal for ASA's 2015 meeting. The panel description and call for abstracts is below; please send a note if you have questions or would like to potentially be a part of this conversation! 

Best wishes and happy holidays to all of you,

Carrie Andersen

cand...@utexas.edu

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Panel Title: "Technologies of Misery and [In]security in the Military-Industrial Complex"

Conference Theme: The (Re)production of Misery and the Ways of Resistance

We are seeking papers for a proposed panel on military technology and misery at the American Studies Association conference in Toronto, Canada from October 8-11, 2015. 

In line with the conference theme, "The (Re)production of Misery and the Ways of Resistance," this panel will explore the ways in which the military, in concert with private industry, manufactures misery through deploying technological innovations like weapons, surveillance technologies, UAVs, and cybersecurity technologies. Although both institutions claim that such technologies are instrumental to national security, this panel considers a more nefarious underbelly: the very technologies used to defend American interests, rhetorically sold to the public in a package of safety and happiness, also exacerbate forms of misery within and beyond American borders. 

This panel will feature discussions of multiple mechanisms of misery creation through technology. Of potential interest are papers on “collateral damage” and international victims of technologies deployed in the service of American state and corporate interests, the increasing divestment of public resources towards defense spending and away from public service programs, and the use of military technologies by domestic law enforcement operations, a practice that produces and recirculates everyday misery particularly for people of color, as revealed in Ferguson this summer. Additional lines of inquiry not stated here are also encouraged.

This panel will be guided by three key questions: first, how do military technologies exacerbate misery and insecurity on economic, social, and political dimensions, even as they are purported to be essential to maintaining a safe and happy America? Second, how could the linkage between technology and security challenge cherished ideals of democratic life and agency in America? Third, in what ways can military technologies that produce misery be resisted in an age of increasing collusion between the defense industry and the state? 

Please send an abstract (300 words) and CV to Carrie Andersen (cand...@utexas.edu) by January 16, 2015.