- Convenors:
-
Zsófia Bacsadi
(Central European University)
Antonia Modelhart (University of Vienna)
Lisa Lehner (University of Vienna)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Panel
Short Abstract
This panel explores "immunity" as a dynamic concept and metaphor in anthropology and beyond. We invite contributions that examine its shifting meanings in the context of global health, multispecies entanglements, politics, care, and community, fostering critical and theoretical engagement.
Long Abstract
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Roberto Esposito’s concepts of immunitas and communitas (2008, 2010, 2013) gained traction in anthropology, and more widely in philosophy and political theory as well. Current developments in global and planetary health such as antimicrobial resistance, vaccine hesitancy and inequity, skepticism towards science, imbalances of public and private investments in biomedical R&D highlight the pertinence of these wider concepts.
Immunity as a concept and metaphor shifting away from antagonism can shed light on the intricacies of multispecies entanglements (between humans and non-human others, pests, microbes), reactionary politics (xenophobia, anti-migrant backlash), but could equally serve as the basis for grasping forms of patient advocacy, demands for access to health, to pharmaceuticals, and to care. Immunity might also be seen as xenophilic; inherently in relation with the other and transforming boundaries of the self (Napier 2017).
We encourage theoretical and conceptual engagement with immunity as a site of tension, transformation, and negotiation: how has immunity been redefined in light of global pandemics, environmental crises, and technological advancements? What are the implications of immunity as a metaphor for exclusion, protection, or vulnerability? How do different cultural, historical, and political frameworks shape our understanding of immunity?
We invite contributions and case studies from various fields of anthropology that understand immunity elastically: engagements with the porous borders of public and private, inside and outside, self and other, with different species, changing ideas of the common and the emergence of novel conditions for exclusion, alienation, as well as for care and community.