The Documentation of Individual Identity: Historical and Comparative Perspectives since 1500

Themes and Tasks
in the History of Identification

European Studies Centre
St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
26-27 September 2008

Avoiding the constraints of a standard programme of academic papers, our inaugural weekend workshop allowed network members and six postgraduate and postdoctoral bursary holders to converge on ‘Themes and Tasks in the History of Identification’ within an exploratory atmosphere of debate and discussion. The event was structured by four panels, each corresponding to one of our research themes, to which members were allocated on the basis of brief, informal position papers which were pre-circulated and summarised at the outset of each session. The event concluded with a plenary during which conceptual outcomes were assessed and arrangements for the remainder of the collaboration finalised.

Workshop Programme

Friday 26 September

12-1pm Registration and Buffet Lunch
1-1:30pm Participant Introductions

1:30-3:30pm
Panel 1: The Longue Durée
Five minute summaries followed by general discussion
Chair: Jane Caplan

Peter Becker, ‘Identification as Boundary Object’
Valentin Groebner, ‘Human Flesh and Name Tags: The Human Body as a Commodity and the History of Identification Practices’
Edward Higgs, ‘Identification in England over the Longue Durée’
Steve Hindle, ‘Documenting Identity: Welfare, Labour Mobility and State Formation’
Pierre Piazza

4-6pm
Panel 2: Discipline and Rights
Five minute summaries followed by general discussion
Chair: Edward Higgs

Simon Cole, ‘Lifestyle Intelligence and the Resurgence of Diagnostic Forensics’
David Lyon, ‘Identification and Surveillance’
Naomi Pfeffer, ‘Who and What do Organ Donor Cards Identify?’
Pamela Sankar, ‘The Use of Genetics and Race in Identification Systems: DNA-typing and Forensic DNA Phenotyping’
Simon Szreter, ‘Identity Registration Systems and Economic Development’
John Torpey

6-7:45pm Wine Reception
8pm Opening Dinner

Saturday 27 September

9-11am
Panel 3: Objects and Methods in the History of Identification
Five minute summaries followed by general discussion
Chair: Jane Caplan

Margo Anderson, ‘Documenting Identity’
Ross Anderson
Didier Bigo, ‘Identification and Intelligence: EU and Transatlantic Dimensions’
Claudine Dardy, ‘The Universalisation of Civil Status: Effects and Stakes’
Béatrice Fraenkel, ‘Signs, Tests and Situations of Identification’
Emilio Mordini, ‘Nothing to Hide: Biometrics, Privacy and the Private Sphere’

11-11.30am Tea, Coffee and Biscuits

11:30-1:30pm
Panel 4: International, Transnational and Imperial Dimensions
Five minute summaries followed by general discussion
Chair: Edward Higgs

Keith Breckenridge, ‘The Biometric Obsession: Transatlantic Progressivism and the Making of the South African State’
Jane Caplan, ”Total Erfassung’: Identification, Registration and Control in Nazi Germany’
Khaled Fahmy, ‘Identification, Surveillance and Shari’a in Modern Egypt’
Takeshi Onimaru, ‘Some Reflections from East and Southeast Asian Cases’
Radhika Singha, ‘Sentenced to Surveillance: Policing ‘Dangerousness’ in Colonial India, 1861-1918′

1:30-2:30pm Buffet Lunch

2:30-4pm
Plenary Discussion

4-4:30pm Tea, Coffee and Biscuits
4:30-8pm Networking and Free Time
8pm Closing Dinner

Back to top