From Irritable Bowels to Affect-able Bodies: the Relation between Bodies and Power

Abstract

My research project is concerned with how differential manifestations of psycho-physical vulnerabilities are not only influenced by power relations but are integral to their constitution. In the first part of my thesis, I specifically study the biopolitical role of the bowels in the re/production of gender and sex, as well as in the regulation of the regimes of sexuality and embodiment, through the case of the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In this section, I analyse biomedical texts as well as artistic representations relevant to the formation of specific grammars of gender and sexuality via the bowels and their afflictions. The second main component of my doctoral research consists in a theoretical discussion of embodiment in its relation to concepts of vulnerability, debility, and affect. Therein I aim at a problematisation of the axes inside-outside, passive-active, and body-mind, which inform hegemonic discourses around psychosomatics, disability, and capacity in Western sciences while considering its effects for political theory and philosophy.

Short biography

Ludovica D’Alessandro (she/her) has a philosophical and artistic practice focused on biopolitics of vulnerability, affective relationalities, and critical care practices. She is a recipient of the Marietta Blau-Grant and currently part of the Lectureship Programme at the Academy.