In conversation with Sita Balani

Synopsis of Deadly and Slick

If race is increasingly understood to be socially constructed, why does it continue to seem like a physiological reality? The trickery of race, Sita Balani argues, comes down to how it is embedded in everyday life through the domain we take to be most intimate and essential: sexuality. Modernity inaugurates a new political subject made legible as an individual through the nuclear family, sexual adventure and the pursuit of romantic love. By examining the regulation of sexual life at Britain's borders, in colonial India, and through the functioning of the welfare state, marriage laws, education, and counterterrorism, Balani reveals that sexuality has become fatally intertwined with the making of race.

About the event

In this event, Balani is in conversation with Pavan Mano, Research Fellow in Racism, Racialisation and Gender at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. The launch will consist of a discussion of Deadly and Slick and its connections to the larger cultural politics of race and sexuality, followed by questions from the audience. There will be an informal drinks reception after the event.