Archana Kaku publishes in the journal "Political Theory": 'Living Alongside Death'

This past June, Assistant Professor of Government, Archana Kaku published a notable article in the Political Theory journal, entitled “‘Living Alongside Death’: Torture, Detention, and the Intersubjective Body.” The article discusses how torture undermines a person’s sense of self by damaging their relationships with space, time, and community. Not only does torture impact the “stable subject” under confinement, but it continues to affect them well after their release.

 Professor Kaku’s article exhibits her extensive research interest in the nature of violence as a means of oppression and resistance. This ties heavily into the concept of necropolitics, broadly defined as the study of how politics can be understood as a process of deliberately designating certain populations for suffering and death. Kaku’s work, which is in conversation with queer and feminist theory, has been published in several of the discipline’s most prestigious journals.

 “Living Alongside Death” is the most recent addition to a burgeoning career of teaching and publications. Her published work includes articles on feminist phenomenologies of violence, the political implications of self-immolation, and immigration. Currently an Assistant Professor in the W&M Government Department, Kaku received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 and previously served as a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Muhlenberg College. At W&M, she teaches courses on political theory surveys and anticolonial politics, as well as a seminar on the “Politics of Pleasure.”

 Students can learn more about Professor Kaku on her website. Her articles are available there, as well as through W&M Libraries online. We encourage you to read her contributions to the literature and take a class with her!

 Congratulations to Professor Kaku on her published article!