Biography

Amedeo Policante is an historian and critical theorist at NOVA University Lisbon. His writings interrogate the nexus of extraction, exploitation and expropriation that fuels the contemporary world market. He is the author of three recent books: “Mutant Ecologies: Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital” (Pluto Press, 2022), a critical cartography of the shifting landscapes of capital accumulation conjured by recent developments in genomic science, genome editing and the biotech industry; “The Pirate Myth: Genealogies of an Imperial Concept” (Routledge, 2016) focusing on the entangled histories of imperialism, ocean stewardship and logistical security since the eighteenth century; and “I Nuovi Mercenari: Mercato Mondiale e Privatizzazione della Guerra” (Ombre Corte, 2014) investigating the history of the security industry in Europe since the second half of the nineteenth century. He has also published several articles and book chapters on the political thought of Karl Marx and Michel Foucault; as well as an ethnography of political protests and their visual representation. These works have been disseminating via traditional means such as academic journals, magazines and newspapers; and alternative means such as ‘The Pirate Camp’, a collaborative artistic project featured at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Research fields

• Contemporary history
• History of science and technology
• Ocean politics and history
• Critical theory

Selected publications

• Borg, Erica & Amedeo Policante. Mutant Ecologies. Manufacturing Life in the Age of Genomic Capital. London: Pluto Press, 2022. [link]
• Policante, Amedeo. “Ursine wars: alpine imaginaries and animal genealogies in the Trentino region,” Anima Loci (2021): https://animaloci.org/ursine-wars-alpine-imaginaries-and-animal-genealogies/. [link]
• Policante, Amedeo. The Pirate Myth: Genealogies of an Imperial Concept. London: Routledge, 2015. [link]
• Policante, Amedeo. I Nuovi Mercenari: Mercato Mondiale e Privatizzazione della Guerra. Verona: Ombre Corte, 2012.

Main projects

• Individual project “Networking the Ocean: Entangled Histories and Geographies of the Submarines Cable Network as a Global Critical Infrastructure” — Hosted by the IHC and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (2021.03779.CEECIND). 2022-2028
• Postdoctoral researcher at the project “Biodiversity of Anthropocene Oceans: Networks, Flows and Systems Approaches for Boundary Crossing Research” — Coordinated by Kimberley Peters (Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity) and funded by the Helmholtz-Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity and the Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).