Global Corpse Politics

Jessica Auchter's research focuses on visual politics and culture. She is author of The Politics of Haunting and Memory in International Relations (2014), and dozens of academic articles and edited volume chapters. She is the winner of the Fred Hartmann paper award from the International Studies Association.

• 1. Visualizing corpse politics; 2. Horrifically graphic: the obscene corpse; 3. The visual politics of ISIS beheadings; 4. Dead terrorists and dead dictators; 5. Proof of death: evidence and atrocity; 6. Displaying the dead body: Some conclusions.

'In this stunning, brilliantly written, empirically rich and courageously incisive book, Jessica Auchter examines how an 'obscenity taboo' inconsistently governs and disciplines how the dead in international politics are seen. Such inconsistency tells us something about various layers of political community in global politics. Yet this electrifying study tells us even more, about how, paradoxically, the dead re-humanize, de-humanize, and functionally shape global politics for the living.' Brent J. Steele, Professor and Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair of Political Science, The University of Utah