Please note that due to a scheduling conflict this colloquium will begin at 5:30PM and be held in Haines Hall 279.
Agents of the State: Narratives of Killing in State Contexts
This talk critically examines two disparate contexts of state-sanctioned killing in the U.S.: death penalty trials and military conflicts. Relying on interviews with jurors who have sentenced defendants to death and combat veterans who have been involved in the loss of life, the talk specifically probes how the individuals tasked with carrying out state killing make sense of their experiences. A close analysis of the linguistic constructions used to talk about these experiences reveals issues about agency, empathy, and subjectivity entangled in these institutional acts.
Robin Conley, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Marshall University