ABSTRACT
This article introduces the special issue of Australian Feminist Studies on The Somatechnics of Life and Death. The issue emerges out of the 10th International Somatechnics Conference held in December 2016 on beautiful Bundjalung country in Byron Bay. Building on the conference theme, ‘Technicity, Temporality, Embodiment’, this special issue explores current trends in feminist and gender studies scholarship on the nature of ‘life’ and ‘death’. Key themes emerging from these articles include: current feminist uptakes of Foucault’s concept of ‘biopower’; new materialist focuses on animacy and vitality; the importance of critical perspectives on both ‘life’ and ‘death’; rethinking binaries around inanimacy and animacy and ‘life’ versus ‘death’; and the place of somatechnics in refiguring these binaries.
