Ep. 50 – Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway

Always Already Podcast, a critical theory podcast

In this especially agentic episode, Emily, John, and B attempt to meet Karen Barad halfway–examining three chapters from her major work, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Exploring how the concepts of agency, quantum theory, feminist science studies, and “the real” might be updated through Barad’s notion of intra-action, the team tackles everything from Barad’s agential realism right down to the heart of whether “yous dudes” can be a thing. Along the way, they puzzle over the difference between a phenomena and an apparatus, ask what a Barad-influenced interpretation of liberalism would be, explore how Barad can influence our pedagogy, and quasi-heatedly debate the relationship of Barad’s work to phenomenology, They even have time for Emily’s favorite segment, One or Several Wolves–in this installment, bears, poop, a dog iPhone, and a sense of belonging are all found in a listener’s recurring dream from childhood.

Thanks to listener Marianne in Norway for the request to read Barad!

Support us on Patreon to help us upgrade our recording equipment. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. RSS feed here. Thanks to Leah Dion for the intro music, and to B for the outro music. Get the mp3 of the episode here.

Links!

• Karen Barad
• Meeting the Universe Halfway
• Interview with Barad for “New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies”
• “agential realism” from ScienceTechnologyStudies wikispace
• Niels Bohr (PBS)
• Quantum Mechanics for Dummies
• Stanford Encylcopedia entry for Feminist Perspectives on Science

https://alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/barad.mp3