Lecture – Selective fencing at Denmark’s biological, politico-geographical, and genomic ‘borders’

This lecture tracks the regulation of the border crossings of pigs and people in and out of Denmark and makes an argument for investigating under one lens the biological, geographical, and genomic margins by which the nation defines itself.

It discusses three key areas: how pig breeding and human reproductive policies regulate biological ‘borders’; how wild boar fences and human immigration policies regulate geographical borders; and how precision medicine investments shape genomic ‘borders.’

In this framework of belonging, the exclusion of what is seen as life-draining material at the various borders is conceptually linked to sustaining high levels of universal care for the humans already allowed inside the borders. In short, intertwined processes of selection and care are at the centre of defining the nation as economy, territory, and human-pig collectivity.
 

15 January 2025, 4.00-5.30pm
Online lecture (WebEx)
Lecture in English

Registration here
 

Mette N. Svendsen is Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, the University of Copenhagen. Her research explores ethical, existential, political dimensions of medical science and technology. She takes a particular interest in the relationship between borders of human and animal life and boundaries of the nation. She is the author of “Near Human: Border Zones of Life, Species, and Belonging” published by Rutgers University Press.

The lecture is part of the UniGR-CBS lecture series “Border Realities: Beyond Nature and Culture”.

The series is organized by Lola Aubry (UniGR-CBS, University of Luxembourg) and Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary (Pacte, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes).