Mons Bissenbakker
University of Copenhagen, Center for Gender Studies, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Taking as its case the Danish “attachment requirement” (2000–2018), this article examines the way in which the biopolitical management of marriage migration has come to take the form of asserting national belonging. Although introduced as... more
Taking as its case the Danish “attachment requirement” (2000–2018), this article examines the way in which the biopolitical management of marriage migration has come to take the form of asserting national belonging. Although introduced as a tool for combatting “forced marriages,” the Danish attachment requirement did not purport to determinate the genuine character of love relationships but instead aimed at monitoring and predicting the national attachment of migrating spouses. Through an indepth analysis of Danish Alien Acts from 2000 to 2018, I demonstrate how the attachment requirement placed an obligation on the applicants to orient themselves toward the Danish nation and society as opposed to other nations, symbolically and legally represented by the applicants’ next of kin and/or their relation to the so-called “ghetto.” Relying on the affective-phenomenological concept of orientation, I suggest that national attachment according to the Danish Aliens Act can be understood as a method for turning belonging into a juridical tool. This secures maximum flexibility for the state in bestowing and reworking rights to family reunification.
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Research Interests:
Based on analysis of legal documents on family reunification and educational material concerning transnational adoption in Denmark, this article suggests that the concept of attachment may be conce...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
From 2002 to 2018, Denmark was the only country in the world to enforce a migration law demanding that couples seeking family reunification in Denmark documented their combined “attachment” to the Danish nation. This article investigates... more
From 2002 to 2018, Denmark was the only country in the world to enforce a migration law demanding that couples seeking family reunification in Denmark documented their combined “attachment” to the Danish nation. This article investigates the practice of documenting such national attachment through the so-called “application packets”. Investigating the attachment requirement as a migration political tool with affective investments and implications, we suggest that the documentation process can be understood as a performative process in which the application packets lay out a trajectory of “happy objects” (Ahmed 2010): the application, family reunification, a residence permit and ultimately the nation itself. Although the applicants are urged to orient themselves towards the Danish nation as a happy object with the promise of a possible future in Denmark, this promise may have cruel implications for the applicants. Suggesting that an interdisciplinary meeting point between the fields ...
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Research Interests:
This article attempts to initiate a critical dialogue on the politics of love and attachment by investigating the way in which the concept of attachment governs the field of transnational adoption. We take our starting point in an... more
This article attempts to initiate a critical dialogue on the politics of love and attachment by investigating the way in which the concept of attachment governs the field of transnational adoption. We take our starting point in an analysis of a collection of background articles, teaching materials, and interviews produced by child psychologists as well as instructions to and testimonies from adopters. Reading the material through Sara Ahmed’s notion of affective orientation and Lauren Berlant’s critical deconstruction of love, we argue that the texts popularize and instrumentalize John Bowlby’s framework of attachment theory in ways that connect attachment to specific notions of love. Even though the aim seems to be the strengthening of intimate familial ties in adoptive families and ensuring feelings of kinship and security for the adoptee, the notion of attachment-as-love simultaneously organizes a narrative logic that positions the adoptee in a deadlock between pathologization an...
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Analysing the series SKAM through an affective queer, crip, and antiracist reading strategy this article shows how SKAM re-politicizes the otherwise gay clichés the series touches upon; thus, the series present anything but a so-called... more
Analysing the series SKAM through an affective queer, crip, and antiracist reading strategy this article shows how SKAM re-politicizes the otherwise gay clichés the series touches upon; thus, the series present anything but a so-called “universal love story”. Rather, it offers a seldom seen queer eye for everyday homophobia as well as a possibility for alternative alliances among queers, crips, and secularism-criticals; alliances that move through as well as beyond the Feminist Killjoy.
In 2015, Danish-Palestinian Omar El-Hussein shot and killed two men in Copenhagen, before being killed himself by the police.Danish media immediately classified El-Hussein’s actions as ‘a terrorist attack’, and they became the object of... more
In 2015, Danish-Palestinian Omar El-Hussein shot and killed two men in Copenhagen, before being killed himself by the police.Danish media immediately classified El-Hussein’s actions as ‘a terrorist attack’, and they became the object of extreme concern to the Danish public. In the following days, the two murder sites were momentarily turned into public memorial spaces. When the site of the killing of El-Hussein also became a site of mourning,
however, it prompted a negative reaction from politicians and the white majority public. While the mixed reactions to publicly mourning a murderer are understandable, they also reveal something about the racialized conditions of public mourning. Reading the different acts of publicly mourning El-Hussein, the article investigates the ways in which public sites of grief are outlined by racialized economies. This article builds upon Butler’s argument that public mourning forms as indicative of which lives are considered lives at all. However, we argue that such an analysis must consider the racialized logics of the performativity of public mourning: Thus, while non-white grief seems not to be recognized as grief at all, white grief tends to reiterate the racialized processes that outline white lives as grievable at the expense of non-white lives.
however, it prompted a negative reaction from politicians and the white majority public. While the mixed reactions to publicly mourning a murderer are understandable, they also reveal something about the racialized conditions of public mourning. Reading the different acts of publicly mourning El-Hussein, the article investigates the ways in which public sites of grief are outlined by racialized economies. This article builds upon Butler’s argument that public mourning forms as indicative of which lives are considered lives at all. However, we argue that such an analysis must consider the racialized logics of the performativity of public mourning: Thus, while non-white grief seems not to be recognized as grief at all, white grief tends to reiterate the racialized processes that outline white lives as grievable at the expense of non-white lives.
Research Interests:
Taking as its case the Danish “attachment requirement” (2000–2018), this article examines the way in which the biopolitical management of marriage migration has come to take the form of asserting national belonging. Although introduced as... more
Taking as its case the Danish “attachment requirement” (2000–2018), this article examines the way in which the biopolitical management of marriage migration has come to take the form of asserting national belonging. Although introduced as a tool for combatting “forced marriages,” the Danish attachment requirement did not purport to determinate the genuine character of love relationships but instead aimed at monitoring and predicting the national attachment of migrating spouses. Through an indepth analysis of Danish Alien Acts from 2000 to 2018, I demonstrate how the attachment requirement placed an obligation on the applicants to orient themselves toward the Danish nation and society as opposed to other nations, symbolically and legally represented by the applicants’ next of kin and/or their relation to the so-called “ghetto.” Relying on the affective-phenomenological concept of orientation, I suggest that national attachment according to the Danish Aliens Act can be understood as a method for turning belonging into a juridical tool. This secures maximum flexibility for the state in bestowing and reworking rights to family reunification.
Research Interests:
*EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS 15 APRIL 2019* Affects. Borders. Biopolitics. August 21-23, 2019 University of Copenhagen The governance of borders and belonging increasingly occurs through affective forms of biopolitics – be it the... more
*EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS 15 APRIL 2019*
Affects. Borders. Biopolitics.
August 21-23, 2019
University of Copenhagen
The governance of borders and belonging increasingly occurs through affective forms of biopolitics – be it the politicization of feelings of kinship or the shaping of migration politics in the name of love and fear. Thus, on the heels of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe in 2015, efforts were made to contain and regulate migrants through fear of the racialized male asylum seeker and were distributed through popular representations of sexual harassment and violence perpetrated by (people who were thought to be) asylum seekers. Yet the same ‘refugee crisis’ also gave rise to affective investments of compassion and solidarity as citizen initiatives were mobilized in support of refugees. Furthermore, love, family, and kinship have become battlefields for regulating and containing racialized migrant populations across the Global North, from the implementation of attachment and integration requirements in Denmark to the forced separation of migrant children and parents at the US-Mexico border.
In the light of such developments, scholarship on the regulation of social categories and structural inequalities increasingly considers how such categories and structures are organized through affective economies and in relation to emotional ideals. By the same token, scholarship on biopolitical regulation must consider how the macro- and micro-levels of affective governmentality are imbricated in gendered, racialized, and sexualized structures. In other words: How can we conceptualize and analyse the connections between affect, biopolitics, and borders?
This conference invites researchers from a wide range of disciplines to investigate how and to what effects areas such as nation, migration, borders, belonging, kinship, communities, and diaspora are conceptually and politically governed through affect at a time in which racist and anti-immigration politics are on the rise in many parts of the world.
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Freedom of Movements Research Collective & Marronage
- Anne-Marie D’Aoust, Professor, Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Jin Haritaworn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
- Rachael Stryker, Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Women’s Studies, California State University, East Bay
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
The conference welcomes proposals that relate to the suggested workshop themes. Proposals can be for individual papers or panels with 3 or 4 presenters. Length of abstract is 150-200 words (15-20 minutes presentation). Abstracts can be emailed to affects.borders.biopolitics@gmail.com no later than April 15, 2019.
Information about conference registration here: https://hum.nemtilmeld.dk/28/
The conference will take place at University of Copenhagen, South Campus, August 21-23, 2019. The conference venue is wheel chair accessible.
SUGGESTED WORKSHOP THEMES
• The affective (bio)politics of nations, borders, deportations, and detentions
• Emotions in border maintenance and state practises
• Tracing affect in archives and legislation
• Affective perspectives on assimilation, state racism, and regimes of care
• Affective dimensions of migration, displacement, and transnational governance
• Governmentality and the affective regulations of kinship, intimacy, and belonging
• The politics of displacement and containment through housing policies and gentrification
• Affective imaginings of a different world: resistance, communities, and political movements
• Cultural and visual investigations of affective biopolitics.
The Affects. Borders. Biopolitics. conference is a collaboration between Center for Gender Studies at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Network for Gender Studies at University of Stavanger, Norway, and it is part of the research project Loving Attachment: Regulating Danish Love Migration (LOVA), funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research, 2017-2021.
Conference convenors: Mons Bissenbakker, University of Copenhagen; Lene Myong, University of Stavanger; Asta Smedegaaard Nielsen, Aalborg University; Sofie Jeholm, University of Copenhagen.
Questions concerning this call for contributions may be addressed to project leader, Mons Bissenbakker: thc211@hum.ku.dk
Affects. Borders. Biopolitics.
August 21-23, 2019
University of Copenhagen
The governance of borders and belonging increasingly occurs through affective forms of biopolitics – be it the politicization of feelings of kinship or the shaping of migration politics in the name of love and fear. Thus, on the heels of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe in 2015, efforts were made to contain and regulate migrants through fear of the racialized male asylum seeker and were distributed through popular representations of sexual harassment and violence perpetrated by (people who were thought to be) asylum seekers. Yet the same ‘refugee crisis’ also gave rise to affective investments of compassion and solidarity as citizen initiatives were mobilized in support of refugees. Furthermore, love, family, and kinship have become battlefields for regulating and containing racialized migrant populations across the Global North, from the implementation of attachment and integration requirements in Denmark to the forced separation of migrant children and parents at the US-Mexico border.
In the light of such developments, scholarship on the regulation of social categories and structural inequalities increasingly considers how such categories and structures are organized through affective economies and in relation to emotional ideals. By the same token, scholarship on biopolitical regulation must consider how the macro- and micro-levels of affective governmentality are imbricated in gendered, racialized, and sexualized structures. In other words: How can we conceptualize and analyse the connections between affect, biopolitics, and borders?
This conference invites researchers from a wide range of disciplines to investigate how and to what effects areas such as nation, migration, borders, belonging, kinship, communities, and diaspora are conceptually and politically governed through affect at a time in which racist and anti-immigration politics are on the rise in many parts of the world.
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Freedom of Movements Research Collective & Marronage
- Anne-Marie D’Aoust, Professor, Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal
- Jin Haritaworn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
- Rachael Stryker, Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Women’s Studies, California State University, East Bay
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
The conference welcomes proposals that relate to the suggested workshop themes. Proposals can be for individual papers or panels with 3 or 4 presenters. Length of abstract is 150-200 words (15-20 minutes presentation). Abstracts can be emailed to affects.borders.biopolitics@gmail.com no later than April 15, 2019.
Information about conference registration here: https://hum.nemtilmeld.dk/28/
The conference will take place at University of Copenhagen, South Campus, August 21-23, 2019. The conference venue is wheel chair accessible.
SUGGESTED WORKSHOP THEMES
• The affective (bio)politics of nations, borders, deportations, and detentions
• Emotions in border maintenance and state practises
• Tracing affect in archives and legislation
• Affective perspectives on assimilation, state racism, and regimes of care
• Affective dimensions of migration, displacement, and transnational governance
• Governmentality and the affective regulations of kinship, intimacy, and belonging
• The politics of displacement and containment through housing policies and gentrification
• Affective imaginings of a different world: resistance, communities, and political movements
• Cultural and visual investigations of affective biopolitics.
The Affects. Borders. Biopolitics. conference is a collaboration between Center for Gender Studies at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Network for Gender Studies at University of Stavanger, Norway, and it is part of the research project Loving Attachment: Regulating Danish Love Migration (LOVA), funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research, 2017-2021.
Conference convenors: Mons Bissenbakker, University of Copenhagen; Lene Myong, University of Stavanger; Asta Smedegaaard Nielsen, Aalborg University; Sofie Jeholm, University of Copenhagen.
Questions concerning this call for contributions may be addressed to project leader, Mons Bissenbakker: thc211@hum.ku.dk
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
I edited a special volume of the Danish academic journal Kvinder, Køn & Forskning on Trans* together with Mons Bissenbakker Frederiksen and Tobias Raun. In the introduction we introduce Trans* studies as well as a trans* vocabulary.
Research Interests:
At være privilegeret er at slippe for følelsen af at være privilegeret. Det er at blive hjulpet uden at føle sig hjulpet.
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“Den affektive vending" har en særlig historisk og filosofisk forbindelse til kønsforskning. Begreber som følelse og affekt skriver sig således ind i kønsforskningens diskussion om forholdet mellem essentialisme og konstruktivisme. Men... more
“Den affektive vending" har en særlig historisk og filosofisk forbindelse til kønsforskning. Begreber som følelse og affekt skriver sig således ind i kønsforskningens diskussion om forholdet mellem essentialisme og konstruktivisme. Men den historiske og begrebsmæssige forbindelse mellem køn, følelser og det private kan også vise sig at få betydning for de måder, som politiske debatter (fx om hhv. asylpolitik og sexarbejde) former sig på.
Research Interests:
This article investigates how the affect shame orients the national subject and the nation towards one another in Danish debates on asylum politics. Taking its starting point in Silvan Tomkin’s studies of shame as well as in Ahmed’s... more
This article investigates how the affect shame orients the national subject and the nation towards one another in Danish debates on asylum politics. Taking its starting point in Silvan Tomkin’s studies of shame as well as in Ahmed’s writing on the relation between emotion and the nation, the article analyses the way in which shame creates a continuum between the nation and the national subject in asylum discourses – negative as well as positive. Specifically it is shown how shame functions as a temporal indicator that sustains narratives that idealise the nation. Reading Sedgwick’s analysis of shaming performatives the article considers how a shaming graffiti situated in Copenhagen’s so-called ‘immigrant quarter’ may be seen as a way of sidestepping national idealisations. Rather it may point to the nation as what Mbembe refers to as “a necropolitical state”.
This article introduces various theories of shame as they figure within a queer theoretical framework. Drawing on E.K. Sedgwick's thinking, shame is presented as a theory of non-normative subject formation that holds potential for... more
This article introduces various theories of shame as they figure within a queer theoretical framework. Drawing on E.K. Sedgwick's thinking, shame is presented as a theory of non-normative subject formation that holds potential for political activist thinking. Rather than regarding shame as an inner state of the subject or a mere social construct, this thinking enables an understanding of shame as performative acts that constitute the very positions that a subject may occupy and experience. Using examples from the on-going Danish debate on prostitution, the article suggests an analysis of “what shame does” as a means of opening up the debate to alternative interpretations. The analysis focuses on the ways in which shame creates subject positions as politically (il)legitimate and considers the potential and pitfalls of this feature of shame. When does shame highlight and undermine normative structures, and when does it stigmatize the sex workers whom the speakers purport to protect? Inspired by Sara Ahmed's work on affect, the article concludes that shame can play interestingly together with activist strategies when its ability to “stick” certain subject positions and subject matters together rather than its distancing function is invoked.