≪ Global Studies Seminar, UTokyo IAGS ≫
The IAGS November research seminar features Prof. Lasse Thomassen (QMUL), who will speak on Jacque Derrida's and Giorgio Agamben's contrasting approaches to sovereignty in the Covid-19 era. All are welcome. This seminar is the second part of Thomassen's seminar series, the first part of which will take place on 8 November at Osaka University.

【Date & Time】　12 November 2022（Saturday）14:00-16:00(JST)
【Venue】　The University of Tokyo, Komaba campus, Bldg 18, 4F, Collaboration Room 2
【Mode】　Hyflex (mix of in-person and online)

＊If you attend online (Zoom), please make registration through G-Form (this is not required for face-to-face participants).

【Speaker】　 Prof Lasse Thomassen（Queen Mary, University of London)
【Title】　　　"Deconstructing Sovereignty Discourse"（please see below for abstract）
【Discussant】 Wren Nishina (PhD Candiate, University of Tokyo, Komaba), Kohei Nagashima (PhD Candidate, Keio University)
【Chair】　 Dr Tomohito BAJI (University of Tokyo)
【Language】 English

【Co-organized by】Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University, the Institute for Advanced Global Studies, the University of Tokyo, and assorted Grants‐in‐aid for Scientific Researches

【Abstract】The paper starts from Giorgio Agamben's writings on Covid-19, where he argues that government responses to the pandemic are only the latest instances of the totalization of sovereign power. I use Derrida's deconstruction of sovereignty discourse in his later works - especially Rogues and The Beast & the Sovereign - to challenge this view. I show that sovereignty is always at once unconditional and conditional, and that there is no place beyond sovereignty. With regard to the latter, I consider the university, international law and human rights, and democracy as alternatives to nation-state sovereignty. In each case, I show - with Derrida - that not only do these institutions and concepts involve sovereignty in some form, but in many cases the sovereignty takes the form of a freedom that we should struggle for. This allows me to contrast Derrida's and Agamben's approaches. The deconstruction of sovereignty discourse does not dissolve the distinction that Agamben and others make between sovereignty and freedom; rather, it makes us able to differentiate between different practices of sovereignty and within freedom. That kind of differentiation is useful when considering how governments have responded differently to the Covid-19 pandemic, exercising their sovereignty differently. It is also useful when considering alternatives - from anti-mask parties to mutual aid groups - articulated through a critique of state sovereignty. The differentiation makes it possible to develop a specifically progressive critique of sovereignty, rather than a critique of sovereignty as such.

Institute for Advance Global Studies, the University of Tokyo（IAGS）