The Racial Cage [Paperback]

The potential of biohumanities as a foundation for antiracist critique of the human

The Racial Cagedelivers a spirited and polyvocal analysis of how race is materialized through both metaphorical and literal cages. It theorizes the cage, fence, dragnet, and tube as material–semiotic sites for racialization and for iteratively redefining the human–animal boundary. A collaborative conversation across continents, this work examines the racial cage as an important part of the practice of social division and bodily containment. The deeply considered result is an empirical and theoretical approach to biohumanities that productively interrogates its linkages to critical theories of race and racism.

Nadine Ehlers is associate professor of sociology at the University of Sydney.

Anthony Ryan Hatch is professor of science and technology studies at Wesleyan University.

Amade Aouatef M’charek is professor of anthropology of science at the University of Amsterdam.

Anne Pollock is professor of global health and social medicine at King’s College London.

Contents

Introduction

1. The Keepers and the Kept: Metabolism Cages in Racial Formations

Anthony Ryan Hatch

2. Uncaging Race: A Proposal for Curiosity and Care for Wild Objects

Amade Aouatef M’charek

3. Caging, Staging: Race and the Question of Human Life in Covid Times

Nadine Ehlers

4. Longed for Still: Antiracism, Uncaging, and Modes of Breathing Together

Anne Pollock

Coda

Acknowledgments