In advance of the NATO Summit in Chicago in 2012, artists Patrick Lichty and Mark Skwarek tested a virtual reality “love bomber” over Bushwick. The superimposition of a drone dropping 8-pixel hearts over city spaces unsettles war-making as a distant, abstract operation and raises a host of questions about the collective and affective targets of violence. This series of sessions aims to provide the space to draw connections among technologies and practices of war-making, imperialism and settler colonialism, carceral institutions and practices, and racism and white supremacy. These processes reshape commonsense geographies of battleground and home front, contribute to the ongoing blurring of humanitarianism and militarism, and illustrate how warfare is enacted through criminalization. Papers will also explore organized opposition to these intersecting forms of violence. https://www.facebook.com/events/950343991699038/ 

Events: Tuesday, April 21 to Friday, April 24 (links below to each session)

 

Tuesday: University of Chicago, Gleacher Center, 4^th floor, 422 classroom

Organizing to End Mass Criminalization & Mass Deportation: Reflections from Illinois-based Organizers and Scholars (SCGSG), #1291, 10:00-11:40 | Facebook page

 

Tuesday: Atlanta Hyatt, West Tower, Gold Level

Bases, Bunkers and Ports I: Technology and Publics (SCGSG), #1539, 2:40-4:20

Bases, Bunkers and Ports II: Airpower (SCGSG), #1639, 4:40-6:20

 

Wednesday: University of Chicago, Gleacher Center, 6^th floor, 602 classroom

Wretched of the City: Race, Gender, Housing, and Security, #2294, 10:00-11:40

 

Wednesday: McCormick Hyatt, West Tower, Silver Level

Unpacking the Military-Humanitarian Border, #2162, 8:00-9:40

 

Geographies of the Contemporary Home Front: The Militarisation of Public Policy, Civic Institutions, and the Third Sector (CGSG), #2262, 10:00-11:40

 

Militarism and Humanitarianism 1 (PGSG), #2462, 1:20-3:00

Militarism and Humanitarianism 3 (PGSG), #2562, 3:20-5:00

Militarism and Humanitarianism 2 (PGSG), #2662, 5:20-7:00

 

Thursday: Regency A, Hyatt, West Tower, Gold Level

The Militarization of Everyday Life: Culture and Social Practice, #3124, 8:00-9:40

 

Prisons, Race, Empire, and Militarism, #3242, 10:00-11:40

 

Thursday: School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Sensing and Sensibility: Politics and Technology in the Contemporary City (SAIC), link, 4:30–6:30

Columbus Auditorium, 280 S. Columbus Dr., room 203

 

Thursday: Social Gathering!!! Hoods and Howells 435 N. Michigan Avenue, 6:00 & on

 

Friday: Grand C/D, South Hyatt, East Tower, Gold Level

Settler Colonialism, Militarism, and Carceral State:

I--Rethinking Grounds of Punishment, Mass Incarceration, and Reform (GPOW, SCGSG), #4123, 8:00-9:40

II--Absences and Violent Erasures (GPOW, SCGSG), #4223, 10:00-11:40

III--Making “Victims” and “Criminals” – Humanitarianism across Borders (GPOW, SCGSG), #4423, 1:20-3:00

 

Sessions sponsored by: Cultural Geography Specialty Group (CGSG), Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group (GPOW), Socialist and Critical Geography Specialty Group (SCGSG), Political Geography Specialty Group (PGSG), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)