L’invivabilité et la précarisation du/des vivant·e·s : enjeux éthiques et philosophiques
The precarity of living through ecological and health crises inevitably leads us to consider the question of the unlivable. What constitutes liveability and unliveability in our modern context? In order to answer this question, we must consider precarity as a politically induced condition under which certain groups are differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death. How are systems of precarity and unliveability connected, especially in the case of the intensive exploitation of nature, women, racialized people, and non-human living beings? What does it mean to contribute to the livability of certain people to the detriment of others? Given the social and political constraints imposed on certain individuals along lines of race, gender, class, and ability, how can we ensure that the livability of some is not tied to the destruction of the living conditions of others or of life as a whole?
The Center for Research in Ethics (CRE) is honored to invite you all to think about these questions with two distinguished keynote addresses: Frédéric Worms (École Normale Supérieure) and Katharine Jenkins (University of Glasgow).
Keynote adresses
Frederic Worms 9h30 to 10h30
In Le vivable et l’invivable (2021) Judith Butler and Frédéric Worms argue that the condition of unliveability refers to the lives of people who have suffered such huge trauma that they lose touch with their own subjectivity. Social, political and physical violence produce ruptures and can engender the end of the recognition of oneself as an acting subject in the world. In this conference, we will explore the ethical and philosophical tools to not only think about this unliveability, but also to better understand what is needed in terms of political and social support structures to ensure that all lives are livable and thus hope to move towards non-violence.
Katharine Jenkins 11h to 12h
Katharine Jenkins’ research considers the precarity of ontological categories themselves, as well as the ways in which emancipatory social movements can best respond to these categories. In their forthcoming book, Ontology and Oppression: Race, Gender, and Social Construction, Jenkins identifies a distinctive form of injustice in which an individual is wronged by the fact of being socially constructed as a member of a certain social kind. Their recent work on disability is concerned with the relationship between a person’s bodily capacities and their social world.
Lunch break 12h to 13h
Conference presentations
13h00 à 14h30
13h à 13h30 : “Pas juste une autre femme autochtone” : redéfinition de la vulnérabilité dans les témoignages à l’ENFFADA – Miriam Hatabi
13h30 à 14h00 : Writing Ungrievable Lives in Car-Dependent Cities: Erín Moure’s Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots – William Brubacher
14h00 à 14h30 : Droits des migrant.es et nationalismes autochtones : au-delà des catégories politiques coloniales – Alexia Leclerc
14h45 à 16h15
14h45 à 15h15 : Addiction as a response to unlivable conditions – Zoey Lavallee
15h45 à 15h45 : “Doctor, I’m going to die”: Psychic Trauma, Racial Wounds, and Colonial History – Sujaya Dhanvantari
15h45 à 16h15 : Technology and Unliveability – David Collins
Organization: Celia Edell, Laurie Gagnon-Bouchard, Annie Liv, Guillaume Soucy et Em Walsh.
Registrations : https://umontreal.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvf-6hqTwoE9Xl9LdKyvf02_z4AXxwEKv9
