This talk proposes a cultural genealogy of contemporary human mediatic forms – that is, the use of humans as the media of other humans. Beginning with a reading of José Rizal’s 1891 novel, El Filibusterismo, and its encapsulation of a political moment of transformation of natives (naturales) into nationals, indios into free citizen-subjects, Tadiar explores practices and relations of humans as media in Philippine cultures and the transformation of such persistent forms of life into vital components of today’s global capitalist platform economy.

Neferti X. M. Tadiar is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization (2009) and Fantasy-Production: Sexual Economies and Other Philippine Consequences for the New World Order (2004). Her current book, Remaindered Life, a meditation on the disposability and surplus of life-making under contemporary conditions of global empire, is forthcoming from Duke University Press.

RSVP by 11 AM (PST) on Wednesday, February 17th; you will receive Zoom link and password at 11:30 AM the day of the colloquium.

The Center for Cultural Studies hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work by faculty and visitors. We gather online at 12:10 PM, with presentations beginning at 12:15 PM.

Staff assistance is provided by the Humanities Institute.

*2020-2021 colloquia will be held virtually until further notice. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own coffee, tea, and cookies to the session.