2020 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Care for the Polis: Expanding Ecologies of Care (6.4.20)

Adams, Rachel E.; Roberts, Bryony W.

Taken from the coda to a book about the aesthetics and politics of care, Rachel Adams' presentation explores the possibilities and perils of extending human care relations to other species, the environment, and non-living matter—including robots. Bryony Roberts' presentation considers how intersectional feminism can inform architectural practice and the designing of spaces, along with infrastructures that engage with experimental and collective models of childcare.

Care for the Polis is a conversation that exists in a multitemporal and virtual space, a space designed to reimagine how medical humanities and public humanities shape, and are shaped by, the city and its diverse publics. In a series of weekly Z-Panels, our invited speakers will discuss the effects of health on the conception of cities and publics—including, in the context of pandemic, the foreclosure of public space and what it means to become an online yet domestic-bound public. Together, we will address emerging concerns such as economic impact and recovery, domesticity and democracy, public care and public reconstruction.

Keywords: animal rights, childcare, care, polis