Banu Bargu is a U.S.-based political theorist and professor of

History of Consciousness History of Consciousness is the name of a department in the Humanities Division of the University of California, Santa Cruz with a 50+ year history of interdisciplinary research and student training in "established and emergent disciplines and fi ...

and

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

Career

Bargu completed her B.A. at

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

in 1997, where she also completed her M.A. in Political Science and International Relations in 2000. She then studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where she completed her Ph.D. in Government in 2008. Bargu taught at The New School in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for a decade before entering the

department at the

in 2018. In her 2014 paper "Sovereignty as Erasure: Rethinking Enforced Disappearances" she discusses Kemal Birlik, who disappeared while in Turkish custody. In 2014, Bargu published her first book, ''Starve and Immolate: The Politics of Human Weapons'' through

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

. The book is about the Turkish Death Fast. Bargu discusses what she calls the "weaponization of life", beginning with the imprisonment of leftist political prisoners in Turkey and then broadening her analysis to discuss

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

, PKK, and other organizations. Hannah Gehl writes that "Bargu wishes to communicate that self-destructive acts and the use of human weapons is a logical and premeditated political statement against the asymmetric distribution of political power". Bargu develops a concept of "necroresistance" which Anna Terwiel has described as "a new understanding of martyrdom as a radical challenge to the modern state". It received the First Book award by the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...

. She subsequently edited the volume, ''Feminism, Capitalism, and Critique: Essays in Honor of Nancy Fraser.'' The essays in the anthology examine the work of

Nancy Fraser Nancy Fraser (; born May 20, 1947) is an American philosopher, critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City.Jadžić, Milo ...

. It was published by Palgrave in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bargu, Banu Living people American political philosophers Year of birth missing (living people) Cornell University alumni