Trans Necrointimacies: Race and the Chalky Affects of Memorialization

The Centre for Feminist Research, Sexuality Studies, and the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies present:
Trans Necrointimacies:
Race and the Chalky Affects of Memorialization
Talk by CFR Visiting Scholar in Sexuality Studies Dr. Nael Bhanji
Introduced by Sexuality Studies Coordinator Bobby Noble
Date: February 5th, 2019
Time: 12-2pm
Location: 280A York Lanes, York University
Accessibility: Accessible space. Wheelchair-accessible and gender-neutral bathroom nearby. Light refreshments provided. Everyone welcome. RSVP with dietary needs to juliapyr@yorku.ca
What sorts of affective worldings emerge from the spectacularization and consumption of ‘ordinary’ racialized death? How can we read projects of memorialization as intimately entwined with the mobilization of national subjects within broader mechanisms of hypervigilance and surveillance against people of colour? What connections can we make between practices of trans memoralization, state-securitization, and counter-terrorism? Tracing the connections between necropolitical intimacy, spectacularized violence, and ‘bare life’ in the circulation ofaffective belonging,this talk exploresthe centrality of “necrointimacies” in structuring whiteness as emblematic of contemporary life.
Dr. Nael Bhanji is the 2018-2019 Visiting Scholar in Sexuality Studies at the Centre for Feminist Research at York University and a lecturer at Carleton University. Drawing upon critical race theory, trans studies, psychoanalysis, and affect theory, his research explores articulations of necropolitics, racialization, surveillance, and counter-terrorism within an increasingly globalized trans movement. Nael’s work appears in Transgender Migrations: The Bodies, Borders, and Politics of Transition, The Transgender Studies Reader 2, Trans Studies Quarterly 4.1, Canadian Ethnic Studies, and The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities. He is presently working on his monograph entitled “Trans Necrointimacies: Race and the Chalky Affects of Trans Memorialization.”