"Bio-deregulation: Bodies, Jeans, and Justice": A talk with Rosemary Hennessy November 29, 2007

The most recent phase of capitalism has made the cost of life prohibitive. Characterized by the intensified deregulation of the state's role as a check on capital greed, neo-liberalism is depriving human beings and the natural world of the time needed to nourish, replenish, and provide the resources that support life. The concept of "bio-deregulation" is a useful critical lever to make visible the impact of neo-liberal capitalism on the reproduction of nature and human being, on the intimate relations that bind the cultural value assigned to bodies in the feminization of the workforce and in the formation of "what's real."

In addressing the social relations that bind neo-liberal encroachments on bodies and daily life across one-third and two-thirds worlds, Rosemary Hennessy, Professor of English at Rice University, will speak about some of the ways bio-deregulation is being implemented and sexualized bodies are a site of struggle: in the media campaign of the multinational marketer, Levi-Strauss; in the organizing efforts of Mexican garment workers assembling jeans for them; and in a popular education program for Mexican workers, some of them former Levi's workers.

Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdays.php