(Auto-)Biographies d’Etat

Le 25 octobre 2018, j’aurai le plaisir de prononcer une conférence à l’Université de Californie à Irvine (UCI), au sein du département d’anthropologie.
Intitulée “The State of Origins. Adoption and Biographical Conflict in France and Ethiopia“, cette intervention présentera à un public anglophone les analyses sur l’Etat et sa responsabilité biographique développées dans Genèses “La reproduction nationale” (n°108).
Abstract:
The “origin question” runs through contemporary debate over filiation ; today, the initial conditions of an adopted child’s conception and/or upbringing – prior to arrival in his or her adoptive family – should be divulged, ostensibly for the benefit of his or her psychic wellbeing. By focusing on international adoption (based in particular on research conducted in Ethiopia), this communication explores the social and political consequences of this new injunction to “transparency,” and questions the practical procedures that allow such a story to be constructed. Putting “your” past into words and having “access” to it are individual actions that are partly conditioned by States’ strength and archival policies, revealing the public aspect of (auto) biographical accounts