This should be very good and is a topic closely linked with our discussions on territoriality.

"Virtual Divides: Biometrics, Borders and Bodies" by Javier Durán, Associate Professor of Spanish and Border Studies, University of Arizona

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 7:30 P.M. Levis Faculty Center (Third Floor) 919 W. Illinois Street, Urbana

This paper analyzes the reconfiguration of state power into new immaterial forms such as virtual and biometric borders, and the impact of this reconfiguration in the cultural representation of migrant subjects and transborder communities. It attempts to elucidate what happens when security mutates from an abstract notion to a series of practices that become part of the nation-state’s dominant discourse. Drawing from what Muller (2008) calls the ‘dispositif of security,’ the first part discusses some interconnections between the biometric state, the culture of securitization and the growing perception that borders are becoming quasi-permanent states of exception. The second part establishes connecting lines between visual securitization images and other recent representations of the biometric border in popular film and narrative using a detailed discussion of the film Sleep Dealer (2008) as a primary example of these interconnections.