Physics

Panopticon

Sociology

Counterintelligence

Government (linguistics)

Censorship

Espionage

Knowledge management

Politics

Algorithm

Software deployment

Software engineering

Engineering

Philosophy

Political science

Power (physics)

Architectural engineering

Everyday life

University campus

Public relations

Computer science

Linguistics

Quantum mechanics

Biopower

Knowledge production

Public administration

State (computer science)

Journal of Asian and African Studies

This article examines the deployment of government spies and state security agents on a university campus in Zimbabwe and the implications this has on knowledge production at the university. The campus is presented as a socio-political space in which everyday political struggles are fought. I argue that surveillance is an intractable part of the rhythms of everyday life on campus, and a very specific form of ‘bio-power’, ‘biopolitics’ and violence meant to discipline students and lecturers, as well as the ways in which knowledge is produced and sedimented. Habitualisation of surveillance and fear of surveillance generate Foucauldian ‘panopticon’: producing ‘self-censorship’ on campus.

Surveillance, Spying and Disciplining the University: Deployment of State Security Agents on Campus in Zimbabwe