@egsaba.bsky.social
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Grinnell, IA. He/his. From Peru, American, Palestinian.
![Life and Biopolitics in Islamic Legal Literature
Much work in social theory has focused on ideas of life itself, sometimes under the name of biopolitics. This literature focuses on how states categorize and give value to different forms of life as part of their effort toward social control. While some scholars, following Michel Foucault, see this kind of biopolitics as a quintessential feature of the modern state, others, following Giorgio Agamben see this phenomenon as having defined political life in Europe at least since ancient Greece. In both cases, analysis proceeds by understanding a kind of value-spectrum of life, usually with humans from the most-dominant group at the highest end of the spectrum and with animals or insects at the lowest end of the spectrum. This panel seeks to add to this body of scholarship by turning towards the Islamic legal heritage. What forms of life do can we find in this heritage? How is life conceived of and given value in legal texts? How do these understandings relate to conceptions of life in other Islamic intellectual traditions?
Organizer: Elias G. Saba
Submit a 300-word abstract with a short (75 word) bio to Elias G. Saba (sabaelia[]grinnell[]edu) by January 25 for full consideration.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:a5ymgoatdsut7mnnji7dn7ls/bafkreih35e3iisnnstfgkbs7hn2tor2rw6jc4ypojhxjldpr6k2kqvbs7e)
