This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required.

Charis welcomes Riley Clare Valentine & Zane McNeill in conversation with Allison Raine Chapman for a discussion of The Coercive Power of the Law: Vulnerable Bodies and Boundaries of Perception, a critical exploration of the interplay between law, care ethics, and the body.

This book offers a critical exploration of the interplay between law, care ethics, and the body, emphasizing how legal systems both reflect societal values and regulate and discipline bodies and sexualities that deviate from normative standards, branding them as deviant or pathological. The authors contend that visibility--often celebrated as empowering--frequently serves as a mechanism of state control, subjecting marginalized bodies to cycles of hyper-visibility and erasure. Grounded in critical disability studies, queer theory, and Foucault's theories of power, the book challenges liberalism's focus on rights and autonomy, advocating instead for a framework centered on care ethics.

Riley Clare Valentine is a political theorist who received their Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. Their work focuses on care ethics as a political ethic and disability studies critiques of legal embodiment. Their books include Progressive Liberalism and Neoliberalism in American Politics (Palgrave 2024) and Be Gay, Do Crime (PM Press 2025). Valentine's work can be found in journals such as Disability & Society as well as Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy.

Zane McNeill has an MA from Central European University and a JD from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. He is the editor of Y'all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia (PM Press, 2022 and co-editor of Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future (University of Kentucky Press, 2024) and Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Resistance and Rebellion (PM Press, 2025).

Allison Raine Chapman is a transgender rights activist, technologist, and legal scholar. She obtained a BSc in Digital Forensics and Cyber Security from Eastern Kentucky University. Since 2022, Allison Chapman has been tracking and analyzing Anti-LGBTQ+ bills and policies across the United States. Her work as an activist and legislative researcher has been featured in major news publications including Reuters, Washington Post, WIRED, Nonprofit Quarterly, Truthout, and NPR.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.

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The Coercive Power of the Law: Vulnerable Bodies and Boundaries of Perception -- Riley Clare Valentine & Zane McNeill in Conversation with Allison Raine Chapman