Message from the organizers: Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Professor Cary Wolfe will be unable to travel to Buffalo to give his much anticipated talk, “(Auto)Immunities,” (see original announcement, below). He deeply regrets this turn of events, and we hope to have him come to UB at some later date.

A lecture by Cary Wolfe, sponsored by the Science Studies Research Workshop.

The first half of this talk will trace briefly the history of immune system discourse, emphasizing its evolution from an earlier model of the “fortress” of the self vs. “enemy invader” pathogens, to what might be called an increasingly “ecological” understanding of the immune system. We’ll then explore briefly the phenomenon of autoimmunity, and why that paradigm has attracted the attention of important philosophers of biopolitical thought such as Jacques Derrida and Roberto Esposito. Against this background, we will focus in the talk’s second half on a specific case of autoimmune disorder: a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome–CFIDS–or, as it has come to be called more recently, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), to explore questions of medicalization, biopower, and the difficulties encountered (and produced) by the medical establishment’s reaction to this complex and often misunderstood phenomenon.

Cary Wolfe, Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English and Director for the Center for Critical and Cultural Theory at Rice University, has written on topics ranging from American poetry to biopolitics. He has been a significant voice in recent debates in Animal Studies and advocates a version of the posthumanist position. His books include: Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), What is Posthumanism? (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010), Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and the Posthumanist Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), The Limits of American Literary Ideology in Pound and Emerson, Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, no. 69 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) and Critical Environments: Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the “Outside,”(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).​