Scientia Fellow (Level D)
Associate Professor Jessica Whyte
PhD. Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University Awarded: October 14th, 2010.
- Thesis Title: “‘Starting from this Uncertain Terrain’: The Political Thought of Giorgio Agamben.”
- Supervisors: Dr. Alison Ross and Dr. Nina Philadelphoff-Puren.
- Examiners: Prof. Eric L. Santner, University of Chicago and Prof. Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck College, University of London.
- Awarded the Monash University Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal 2010.
Social Science (Hons.) RMIT University, 2003
- Thesis Title: “Life in the Camp: Giorgio Agamben and Australia’s Mandatory Detention of Asylum Seekers”, (First Class Honours)
- Supervisor: Prof. Rob Watts.
Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) RMIT University, 2002.
Arts,Design & Architecture
School of Humanities & Languages
Jessica Whyte is Scientia Fellow and Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Languages (Philosophy) and the School of Law, University of New South Wales, and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow. She is a political theorist whose work integrates political philosophy, intellectual history and political economy to analyse contemporary forms of sovereignty, human rights, humanitarianism and militarism. Her work has been published in a range of fora including Contemporary Political Theory; Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development; Law and Critique; Political Theory; and Theory and Event. Her first monograph, Catastrophe and Redemption: The Political Thought of Giorgio Agamben, was published by SUNY in 2013. Her forthcoming book, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism will be published by Verso in 2019. She is currently working on a three-year Australian Research Council-funded project, “Inventing Collateral Damage: The Changing Moral Economy of War”. As a Scientia Fellow at UNSW, Jessica is building on her DECRA research through the project “The moral economy of civilian protection and the transformation of international humanitarian law”.
- Publications
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
2015: "The Invention of Collateral Damage and the Changing Moral Economy of War" , Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship, DE160100473.
2014: Early Career Research Grant, University of Western Sydney, for the project “Suffering and Morality in the New Humanitarianism”, $7,078.
2014: Research Training Scheme, University of Western Sydney, for the workshop “New Spirits of Humanitarianism”, $5000.
2018: Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Visiting Research Fellowship
2014: Visiting Research Fellowship, Centre for the History of Knowledge, ETH Zurich.
2010: Monash University Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal
2010: School of English, Communications and Performance Studies Graduate Research Achievement Prize for the best publication in the School. (Awarded for the article “Particular Rights and Absolute Wrongs: Giorgio Agamben on Life and Politics”, published in Law and Critique.)
Scientia Project: “The moral economy of civilian protection and the transformation of international humanitarian law”.
Project description: Today, civilians account for a higher proportion of conflict deaths than at any point in modern history. As Western societies are acculturated to conceptualise far-off civilian deaths as ‘collateral damage’, new technologies and weaponry have deadly effects on non-combatants, and the rise of urban wars—in which non-traditional forces fight in the midst of densely-populated areas—expose civilians to increasing risks. This project addresses the significant challenge of the human costs of contemporary armed conflicts. It seeks to understand the historical and institutional processes that have established a moral and legal distinction between deliberate harm inflicted on non-combatants, and the ‘collateral damage’ that is seen as an inevitable ‘side-effect’ of modern warfare. The project will produce an account of the role of military strategists, human rights organisations, and international lawyers in normalising ‘unintentional’ killing. Drawing on archival material and military manuals, and combining insights from political philosophy, the history of human rights, and the anthropology of humanitarianism, the project aims to illuminate the moral economy of contemporary warfare.