Transnational Problem Construction: A CoDE Seminar with Pyar Seth

CoDE is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is based at the University of Manchester. In the context of ongoing policy concern and academic debate around issues of ethnic diversity, integration, immigration and inequality, the core agenda of CoDE is to transform our understanding of the contemporary patterning of ethnic inequalities, to investigate how this relates to the ways in which ethnic identities are perceived, acted upon and experienced, and to provide the knowledge and tools to enhance policy and public capacity to engage in this area. More information on ourwebsite.

CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity)

Please join us on 27 October, online and in Arthur Lewis G30/G31, for a hybrid CoDE webinar with Pyar Seth (Johns Hopkins University).

Despite academic scholarship and the American Medical Association opposing the diagnosis known as Acute Behavior Disturbance (ABD) or ‘excited delirium’, it has continued to be cited as a legitimate cause of death. First coined by Charles Wetli in 1985, the diagnosis has become somewhat foundational in the defense of police, especially when there is a concern of a racialized fatal outcome in their custody. Rather than suggest any form of wrongdoing on behalf of police, excited delirium is often used to say the following: George Floyd is responsible for his own death; it is attributable to his drug use and their own ‘faulty biology.’ Though excited delirium was not successfully deployed in defense of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, Natasha McKenna, Elijah McClain, Daniel Prude, and more have unfortunately had their death reduced to heavily contested medical terminology. But most notably, the application of excited delirium cannot be limited to US context. For example, in the United Kingdom, excited delirium was cited in the inquest of Kevin Clarke and the families of both Olaseni Lewis and Sean Riggs also confirmed a strong attempt by police, the media, and the like to include the term in their reporting. And so, here, I broadly contend with the question, How and when do medical diagnoses enter policing? Through an examination of autopsies, death certificate information, and ontologies of medical examination, I show how a kind of ‘medical archive’ can be an important tool for understanding current processes of globalization as well as the geopolitical gravity of policing and medicalization.Pyar Seth is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University.

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Transnational Problem Construction: A CoDE Seminar with Pyar Seth

More events from CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity)

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Transnational Problem Construction: A CoDE Seminar with Pyar Seth

More events from CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity)

Follow organisers to get events picked for you

You might also like...

Sign in for personalised recommendations

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.