What does freedom mean to you?
A hard and active struggle for relief, a supportive and horizontal mode of boundedness, a careful and creative search for bliss, all crafted collectively, against and beyond unlivable structures of oppression and relational dynamics of power.

How does freedom feature in your work?
My research questions the interplay between practices of freedom, practices of resistance and practices of care. Situated at the nexus of care studies and queer feminist political theory, it recasts care as a reality that does not only trouble liberal understandings of social justice and political participation but also how autonomy, interdependency and non-domination are construed in post-Foucauldian thought. By delving into forms of unfreedom related to care work that are often overshadowed in this scholarship, my work seeks to reconceptualise liberation outside its equation with becoming carefree. This reconceptualisation both engages with and diverges from feminist theorists who prioritise constructing "careful" strategies of resistance centered around caregiving. Instead, it advances a queer feminist understanding of political action and coalition-building rooted in the shared yet diverse experiences of neglect and abuse that have historically characterized care receiving for infantilised, feminised, racialised, disabled, undocumented, and/or non-straight bodies.

What project(s) are you working on during your fellowship at the Forum Basiliense?
My primary scholarly focus as a fellow centers on a forthcoming book project, provisionally titled "An Age of Carelessness: Politicizing (Un-)caring in Biopolitical Times." This work extends from my doctoral research which delves into the intricate nexus between patriarchal violence, care work and neoliberal politics. It undertakes a critical examination of the contemporary politicisation of caring and uncaring within two distinct academic discourses: the post-Foucauldian discourse on sovereign biopolitics and the feminist literature addressing the "crisis of care." By incorporating considerations of sexuality, age and disability alongside the more commonly discussed factors of race, class and gender, the manuscript elucidates how prevailing narratives surrounding current manifestations of carelessness often oversimplify the inherent power dynamics involved in the reception of care. It underscores that such simplification perpetuates notions of resistance and freedom that inadequately grasp the nuanced temporal and spatial dimensions entangled within the coercive, disciplinary and regulatory facets of the current care regime. In tandem with this project, I plan to publish three related works that critically analyse the masculinist biases entrenched within what I have termed the “sovereign turn” in Foucauldian studies. Focusing on Mbembe’s ethics, Agamben’s conception of “politics as intimacy” and Foucault’s “vague sketch of the pastorate”, they propose strategies for reclaiming the “biopolitical paradigm” within queer feminist political theory.