Reading Club I: “Territory and Borders, Racial Capitalism and Sovereignty in Crisis” by Gargi Bhattacharyya

“Racial capitalism describes a set of techniques and a formation, and in both registers the disciplining and ordering of bodies through gender and sexuality and  dis/ability and age flow through what is happening.” (Bhattacharyyam, p.10, 2018)

How do borders shape our perception of the world? What does Bhattacharyya have to say about this order? What possibilities emerge when this system is put into question? What are the connections of border regimes with capitalism and racism? How does this text relate to Ashkan Shabani’s art? And how does border control act over queer bodies?

Kunstraum and Archipelago LAB invite for a collective discussion of the chapter “Territory and Borders, Racial Capitalism and Sovereignty in Crisis” of the book “Rethinking Racial Capitalism Questions of Reproduction and Survival”,  by Gargi Bhattacharyya. Similar to the exhibition, which unveils the rituals and machinery of border crossing, this reading session focuses on a reflection about how borders sort people into different categories. The border order condemns millions of people to immobility and reinforces exclusions based on race, class, sexuality, on the desirable/undesirable and the us/them dichotomies.

Reading:
Bhattacharyya, Gargi. 2018. Rethinking Racial Capitalism: Questions of Reproduction and Survival. London: Rowman & Littlefield International, Intro and Chapter 5, ix-xi and 125-149

If you want to participate, please write a short email to Smilla.grubert@stud.leuphana.de for the material.

The ArchipelagoLab is a room operated by students, and it is open to students and PhD candidates for participation of many kinds. It offers the infrastructure for planning and implementing events and formats taking different shapes, and aims to be a safe space for this. The Lab is the node of a network that supports and advises each other, and at the same time a physical space in building 5 for meetings of student-organized groups and events.