Technologies of Power

A Public Humanities Initiative

This year, as the US surpasses half a million deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic fascists attempt a coup, the country will also mark the 20th anniversary of the US-led Global War on Terror. How did global and national politics coalesce into this present?

Technologies of Power: Tracing Empire at Home and Abroad explores how technologies of power and empire have shaped multiple terrains domestically and transnationally. The wars ‘over there’ have a lot to tell us about struggles ‘over here’— and vice versa. From imperial projects that devastated entire regions in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to the domestic expansion of explicit white supremacy, surveillance, and policing, US technologies of power have generated a multidirectional and dialectical relationship between foreign wars and domestic issues.

Technologies of Power will encourage intersectional conversations on race and empire that break the boundaries between ‘technology’ and ‘power,’ ‘domestic' and ‘foreign,’ 'home’ and ‘abroad.'

Organized by Madiha Tahir & Adrien Zakar in collaboration with Marwa Elshakry, Manan Ahmed & Brinkley Messick

Sponsored by Columbia University | Dean of Humanities' War and Peace Initiative with the support of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations & the Institute for the History and Philosophy (IHPST), University of Toronto, and ​CIB, Arizona State University

Speakers & Panels

INTIMACY - 09/10

Nick Estes, Moazzam Begg, Caren Kaplan

GEOPOLITICS - 09/24

Samar Al-Bulushi, Darryl Li, John Muthyala

PLACE - 10/08

Kate Chandler, Brittany Meché, Eli Nelson

ENCLOSURE - 10/22

Helga Tawil-Souri, Darren Byler, Charlton McIlwain

OPACITY - 11/05

Simone Browne, Nada Shabout, Ronak Kapadia

TRACE - 11/19

Priya Satia, Zainab Bahrani, Rosie Bsheer

MEMORY - 12/03

Sarah Hamid, Emran Feroz, Majd Al-Shihabi

For more information, visit the online event page.