Governing Human Beings in the Age of the Brain: A Symposium with Nikolas Rose
Presented by the Centre for the History of European Discourses at
the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, Australia
Wednesday, November 16 2011
1.30pm to 5.30pm
Social Sciences and Humanities Library Conference Room,
Level 1 Duhig Building (Bldg 2), St Lucia Campus [See Map]
In his recent study, The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (2006), Nikolas Rose examines the transformative effects of brain imaging technologies and recent developments in neuroscience on late twentieth and early twenty-first century concepts of the self. “Over the past half century,” he argues, “we human beings have become somatic individuals, people who increasingly come to understand ourselves, speak about ourselves, and act upon ourselves—and others—as beings shaped by our biology.” The papers in this symposium will examine the implications of this newly biologised understanding of subjectivity across the wide range of cultural, clinical and commercial contexts in which it can be found. The symposium will conclude with a public lecture by Nikolas Rose.
Programme
“The Biological Imaginary: Science and the Somaticised Self”
Elizabeth Stephens, ARC Research Fellow
Centre for the History of European Discourses
The University of Queensland
“Avoiding the Seductions of Neurohype in Ethical Analyses of Addiction Neuroscience”
Wayne Hall, NHMRC Australia Fellow
UQ Centre for Clinical Research
The University of Queensland
“Brain Whisperers: New Forms of Consumer Monitoring on the Frontiers of Neuroscience”
Mark Andrejevic, ARC QE II Fellow
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
The University of Queensland
“A Neurobiological Complex? Governing Human Beings in the Age of the Brain”
Nikolas Rose, Martin White Professor of Sociology
BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society
London School of Economics
This symposium is free, but registration is essential for seating and catering purposes. Please RSVP to Elizabeth Stephens: e.stephens@uq.edu.au
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