This keynote will explore the proliferation of discourses of care — including self-care, collective care, and radical care — as well as critiques of those discourses, both of which have gained additional momentum and urgency in activist and academic contexts during this time of pandemic. Taking up Eli Clare’s notion of “grappling with cure,” this talk “grapples with care,” including its use in addressing the mental health crisis in academia and its use by activists, especially queer feminists of colour working for racial, gender, sexual, and disability justice. Drawn from a book in progress, How to Live in A Body: A Survival Guide for Troubled Times, the project emerges from collective work with a Public Feelings writing group, of which Lauren Berlant was a member, and it also “grapples” with Berlant’s critiques of sentimentality, optimism, and other forms of affective politics.
The event is co-sponsored by the Centre for European Studies at UBC.
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