Date
April 7, 2017

Location

East Gallery, Buell Hall at Columbia University


Time
10:00 am – 4:30 pm

Event Organizer

Columbia Maison Française


Event Sponsor

Event Co-Sponsor(s)

The Department of History

The Department of French and Romance Philology

History in Action

The Columbia Maison Française

The Columbia University Seminars

The Columbia Law School

The Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought

The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.


Is there a common thread that connects police brutality against people of color in the US to the global “War on Terror” and to the current emergency laws in France? To this can we add the proliferation of border controls, including the recent upsurge in detentions and deportations in the US? Or the daily realities of occupation in the West Bank? What, in other words, is the relationship between race, law, and states of exception? What are the deep historical roots and global configurations of this relationship? This conference brings together scholars and practitioners from across disciplines to reflect on these questions and pose ideas for future inquiry and action.

Sponsored by: The Department of History, the Department of French and Romance Philology, History in Action, the Columbia Maison Française, the Columbia University Seminars, the Columbia Law School, the Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.

Program10-10:15AM:WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

10:15AM-12PM: PANEL 1: COLONIALISM AS EXCEPTION

Anupama Rao (History, Barnard), “The Legislation of Damaged Life. Or, How to Write Histories of Colonial Violence.”

Gregory Mann (History, Columbia), “Authority and Exception in French Africa”

Partha Chatterjee (Anthropology, Columbia), “The Imperial Privilege as Exception: Race and Law in South Asia.”

Moderator: Neferti Tadiar (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard)

12PM-12:45: LUNCHBREAK

12:45-2:30PM: PANEL 2: FRENCH GENAOLOGIES OF INSURGENCY AND COUNTER-INSURGENCY

Sarah Ghabrial (History, Columbia), “Race, Repression, and the Right of Death in Colonial Algeria.”

Emmanuelle Saada (French, Columbia), ”A Very Long Exception: Race and Law in the French Empire.”

Vanessa Codaccioni (Political Science, Université Paris 8), “The Discriminatory Nature of the State of Emergency: The French Case.”

Moderator: Kendall Thomas (Law, Columbia)

2:30-2:45PM: COFFEE BREAK

2:45PM-4:30PM:HOMELAND SECURITY: THE U.S. AND ITS EMPIRE

Nikhil Pal Sing (History, NYU), “Trump, Police Power, and the Present Crisis.”

Wadie Said (Law, University of South Carolina), “Exceptions and Constructs in the War on Terror.”

Patricia Williams (Law, Columbia), “Other People’s Children.”

Moderator: Robert Gooding-Williams (Philosophy, Columbia)

 The Heyman Center for the Humanities, Room B-101
74 Morningside Drive
New York, NY, 10027
  (212) 854-4541
  (212) 854-3099