Authoritarian Modernity: Neoliberal Citizenship from Marcos to Duterte
Vicente L. Rafael
(Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle)
Friday, February 10, 2 pm, HG1010
From Marcos to Duterte, we see a history of authoritarian modernity characterized by the rise of neoliberalism undergirded by the dialectic of biopower and necropower: the state’s attempts to provide not just life but more than life for its citizens precisely in and through the exclusion and execution of those it regards as its social enemies. This talk traces the emergence of neoliberal conditions in the Philippines as the backdrop to the rise of authoritarian rule designed to produce disciplined subjects, but always under the shadow of counterinsurgency aimed at regulating dissent and killing the threats to the state’s authority.
Vicente L. Rafael is Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research and teaching have focused mostly on the comparative political and cultural history of the Philippines, the United States and Southeast Asia. He is the author of several books and essays on the cultural and political history of the Philippines from the Spanish colonial period to the present. His most recent book is The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte (2022)
Note: Professor Rafael's visit is supported by UCI's Forum for the Academy and the Public, as he will also be on campus to participate in its February 10-11 annual conference on the theme of "Empire Resurgent: Narratives, Nationalisms, and New Dystopias."
Please contact cas@uci.edu if you need any further information.