On this episode, Michael Richardson is joined by Dr Ronak K. Kapadia, a cultural theorist and author of Insurgent Aesthetics: Security and the Queer Life of the Forever War, to talk about art and the human terrain of drone warfare. First Michael interviews Ronak about his work, then you’ll hear Ronak deliver a talk based on his book.

This is the first in a six-part series called Drone Futures, based on a virtual public seminar series at the Media Futures Hub. Drone Futures brings together leading artists, humanities and social science scholars whose research intersects with the emerging field of drone studies. From the neo-colonial violence of contemporary wars in the Middle East and Africa to the strange histories of unmanned aerial vehicles to activist uses in struggles for justice, this seminar series looks to the past and present to think into the future. Visit https://www.dronewitnessing.com/drone-futures for more info.

Ronak K. Kapadia is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His first book, Insurgent Aesthetics: Security and the Queer Life of the Forever War (Duke University Press, 2019), theorizes the queer world-making power of contemporary art responses to US militarism in the Greater Middle East. His new project, “Breathing in the Brown Queer Commons,” examines race-radical queer and trans migrant futurisms to develop a critical theory of healing justice and pleasure across transnational sites of security, terror, and war in the wilds of ecological chaos and US imperial decline. https://twitter.com/ProfKapadia

Michael Richardson is Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales, examining the intersection of war, culture and technology. https://twitter.com/richardson_m_a

Media Futures Hub works at the intersection of media and cultural studies to shape the theories, methods and practices needed for more just media futures. https://twitter.com/MediaFuturesHub