AMEDEO POLICANTE
Postdoctoral Fellow - The University of Warwick
Amedeo Policante is an historian and critical theorist at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Nova University of Lisbon. His writings interrogate the nexus of extraction, exploitation and expropriation that fuels the contemporary world market. He is the author of three recent books: "Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital" (Pluto Press, 2022), a critical cartography of the shifting landscapes of capital accumulation conjured by recent developments in genomic science, genome editing and the biotech industry;"The Pirate Myth: Genealogies of an Imperial Concept" (Routledge, 2016) focusing on the entangled histories of imperialism, ocean stewardship and logistical security since the eighteenth century; and "I Nuovi Mercenari: Mercato Mondiale e Privatizzazione della Guerra" (Ombre Corte, 2013) investigating the history of the security industry in Europe since the second half of the nineteenth century. He has also published several articles and book chapters on the political thought of Karl Marx and Michel Foucault; as well as an ethnography of political protests and their visual representation. These works have been disseminating via traditional means such as academic journals, magazines and newspapers; and alternative means such as 'The Pirate Camp', a collaborative artistic project featured at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Selected Publications
MONOGRAPHS
- Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital, London: Pluto Press, 2022.
- The Pirate Myth: Genealogies of an Imperial Concept, London: Routledge, 2016.
- I Nuovi Mercenari: Mercato Mondiale e Privatizzazione della Guerra, Verona: Ombre Corte, 2013.
CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES
-“The Pirate States of Barbary: Mediterranean Orientalism and the Shifting Boundaries of the International Community” in Corsairs and Pirates in the Eastern Mediterranean, 15th-19th century. Ed. David Starkey. Athens: Sylvia Ioannu Publications, 2016.
- “The New Pirate Wars: The World Market as Imperial formation”, in Empire in the Age of Austerity. Ed. Russell Foster. London: Routledge, 2014.
- “The Pirate Camp: An Heterotopia for the 21st Century?” in The Pirate Camp Reader, Torino: Kanichen-Haus, 2013.
- “After the event: the mythical representation of violence”, in Situating Global Resistance: Between Discipline and Dissent. Eds. Lara Coleman and Karen Tucker. London: Routledge, 2011.
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
- “Ursine Wars: Alpine Imaginaries and Animal Genealogies in the Trentino Region”, Anima Loci. A Journal of Images in Place, 2.1, 2021
- “Narcocapitalism and its Discontents: Towards a Biopolitical Economy of the Opioid Crisis”, Radical Philosophy, 2.05, 2019.
“The Return of the Pirate: Postcolonial Trajectories in the History of International Law”, Política Común. A Journal of Thought, 5, 2016.
“The New Pirate Wars: The World Market as Imperial formation”, Global Discourse, 3(1), 2015.
“Game of Drones: Cubicle Warriors and the Drudge of War”, Nyx, 7, 2014: 110-116.
“Vampires of Capital: Gothic Reflections between Horror and Hope”, The Cultural Logic, 3(1) 2012. [republished as ‘Vampires of Capital: Gothic Reflections Between Horror and Hope’, Works and Days, 59(3): 213-230].
“Franciscan Profanators: or the radical pacifism of a broken window”, Nyx, Issue 5, 2011.
“Foucault, Subjectivity and Flight: Witchcraft, Possession and the Resistance of the Flesh”, Material Foucaultiani 1(1), 2012: 235-259.
“The myth of student violence”, Nyx, 4(1), 2011.
"Of Cameras and Balaclavas: Violence, Myth and the Convulsive Kettle", Globalizations, 8.4, September 2011: 457-471.
“Note on Labour”, Nyx, Issue 3, 2010.
“War against Biopower: Timely Reflections on an Historicist Foucault", Theory & Event, 13.1 March 2010.
SELECTED CONFERENCES
"Foucault on Drugs: Neoliberalism, Truth and the Repressive Hypothesis", Theorising the Drug War, International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy at the University of Essex (29th and 30th of June, 2017)
"The Work of Logistics: Privatization of Security and Fragmegration of Global Space", Logistics&Power: A Symposium,University of Nottingham (4th of April, 2016).
“Plunder as Primitive Accumulation? Reflections on Piracy and Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century”, La Pirateria fra Storia e Diritto, Università di Firenze, 10th of December 2015. (Invited Speaker)
“Rogue State: Travels and Misadventures of an International Political Concept”, First Conference on ‘Ideologies in Translation’, University of Nottingham & International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, (May 5th, 2015).
“Neo-Liberalism and Its Discontents: (Dis-)embedding the World Market in the 21st century”, Open Lecture organized and funded by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1st of April, 2015).
"Pirate Legends on the Mediterranean Frontier: Orientalism and the Shifting Borders of the International Community", Corsairs and Pirates in the Eastern Mediterranean, 15th-19th century. Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens. Invited Keynote Speaker funded by the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation (October 17-19, 2014).
“Foucault and Pirates: International Law, World Trade and Primitive Accumulation”, International Relations, Capitalism and the Sea: The Historical Sociology of Oceans and Inner Seas. Sponsored by the British International Studies Association at the University of London, Birkbeck College (April 2013).
“Pirates: Genealogy of a Political Myth”, 2-days Seminar at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Sponsored by the Politics Department and the Research Unit for Politics&Ethics (May 2012).
“Security and Racism: Sovereign Violence after Biopolitics”, Foucault and the Critique of Our Present: Reworking the Foucauldian Toolbox, Goldsmiths College, University of London (April 2012)
“The Biopolitics of Free Trade: Doux Commerce and the Securitization of the World Market”, Reading Michel Foucault in the Postcolonial Present: A Symposium, University of Bologna, Italy, (March 2011).
“Anarchism, Nomadism and the Working Class: Lessons from Deleuze”, The Libertarian Impulse: Theories, Histories, Comparisons. RUPE Seminar series 2009-2010, Goldsmiths College, (March 2010).
"Of Cameras and Balaclavas, Violence, Myth and the Convulsive Kettle", Disciplining Resistance, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol (September 2009).
INTERVIEWS AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- ‘Rewilding Europe: Battaglie politiche del movimento antispecista’, Interview on Radio Radicale [January 2021].
- ‘Power Relations: Where the Personal Becomes Political, Interview on Pharos Magazine [April, 2020].
- ‘I Nuovi Mercenari: L’Industria della Sicurezza in Italia’, Interview on RAI Radio3 [February, 2019].
Contacts
Website: https://warwick.academia.edu/AmedeoPolicante
Institutional Email: policante@fcsh.unl.pt
Personal Email: policante@gmail.com
