Plastic Materialities: Politics, Legality, and Metamorphosis in the Work of Catherine Malabou

Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity has influenced and inspired scholars from across disciplines. The contributors to Plastic Materialities-whose fields include political philosophy, critical legal studies, social theory, literature, and philosophy-use Malabou’s innovative combination of post-structuralism and neuroscience to evaluate the political implications of her work. They address, among other things, subjectivity, science, war, the malleability of sexuality, neoliberalism and economic theory, indigenous and racial politics, and the relationship between the human and non-human. Plastic Materialities also includes three essays by Malabou and an interview with her, all of which bring her work into conversation with issues of sovereignty, justice, and social order for the first time.

Contributors. Brenna Bhandar, Silvana Carotenuto, Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, Jairus Victor Grove, Catherine Kellogg, Catherine Malabou, Renisa Mawani, Fred Moten, Alain Pottage, Michael J. Shapiro, Alberto Toscano

Brenna Bhandar is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, SOAS, at the University of London.

Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai’i. He is the author of The Limits to Union: Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Civil Rights.