Foucault News

Sovereignty and Governmentality: Mapping Power With Butler and Foucault – Colloquium (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

12 March 2011

The Foucault Society, NYC
2011 Colloquium Series: New Research in Foucault Studies

We are delighted to announce the second colloquium in our new series:
Thursday, March 24, 2011
7:00-9:30pm
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5409
New York, NY

Verena Erlenbusch (University of Sussex and Emory University)
“Sovereignty and Governmentality: Mapping Power With Butler and Foucault”

Abstract:
This paper investigates the relation between sovereignty and governmentality by comparing and contrasting the work of Judith Butler and Michel Foucault. It argues that Butler’s reworking of this relationship is supported by Foucault’s genealogy of liberalism. Both Butler and Foucault shun any attempt to formulate a unitary theory of power and instead insist on the coexistence of multiple forms of power. For Foucault, this coexistence takes the form of a superimposition of different kinds of power, while Butler identifies an anachronistic resurgence of sovereignty within a field of governmentality. The paper concludes that Butler’s account of power under conditions of a permanent War on Terror anticipates and at the same time recreates the narrative Foucault developed in more depth in his lectures on biopolitics.

Speaker bio:
Verena Erlenbusch is a PhD candidate at the University of Sussex and a visiting research scholar at Emory University. Drawing from the work of Foucault, her dissertation, entitled “A History of Terrorism in the Age of Freedom,” traces a philosophical history of terrorism and situates it within a wider development of contemporary power relations.

About the Colloquium Series:
The Foucault Society’s Colloquium Series provides a forum for new research and works-in-progress, and an opportunity for both junior and senior scholars to share new work with a friendly and supportive audience of colleagues.

Open to the public. For more information or to RSVP, please send an e-mail to Shifra Diamond, Colloquium Chair, at foucaultsocietyorg@gmail.com.

About the Foucault Society:
The Foucault Society is an independent, non-profit educational organization offering a variety of forums dedicated to critical study of the ideas of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) within a contemporary context.

Website
Facebook
Twitter: @foucaultsociety

E-mail: foucaultsocietyorg@gmail.com

Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique – analytical strategies for critique of power (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

7 March 2011

Short course for PhD students only.

Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique – analytical strategies for critique of power
(4-6 May 2011)

Venue
Department of Management , Politics & Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
Porcelænshaven 18a
2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark

Seminar Coordinator: Kaspar Villadsen
Participants
Professor Mitchell Dean, Macquarie University, Sydney,
Professor Sverre Raffnsøe, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy, Copehagen Business School (CBS)
External Lecturer, Afonso Moreira, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy, CBS,
Associate Professor Kaspar Villadsen, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy, CBS,
PhD Scholar, Marius Gudmand-Høyer, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy, CBS

Aim of the course
The course will provide the participants with: a) An updated introduction to key analytical concepts in the Governmentality literature, and the potentials and weaknesses of these concepts will be discussed. b) Possibilities for supplementing the governmentality approach with other analytical sources will be discussed. c) Furthermore, a detailed consideration of the current status of governmentality studies and postFoucauldian studies will be given, in particular in light of recent claims for a crisis of critique. d) Finally, suggestions will be presented on how to elaborate or move beyond the framework of governmentality by activating concepts of bio-power and sovereignty, reconsidering the social and notions of society, and focusing on international dimensions of governmentality. In brief, the course aims to provide participants with a thorough understanding of the governmentality framework, that is, its analytical possibilities, its current status, and its possible directions of development.

Course content, structure and teaching
Over the last 20 years, post-Foucauldian ‘governmentality studies’; have come to growing prominence. These studies have been effective in critically analysing new types of liberal government, in particular by demonstrating ‘the active side of laissez faire’. They describe how the motto of ‘pulling back the state’; has been accompanied by a series of governmental strategies and technologies aimed at shaping institutions and subjects in particular ways. Perhaps most noticeably, they have presented a diagnosis of a proliferation of regimes of enterprise and accounting in new and surprising places. But a wide range of other domains have been subjected to governmentality analysis spanning from genetic screening and risk calculation, new crime prevention strategies, to health promotion by self-responsibilisation.

To be sure, the concepts in governmentality studies continue to constitute effective tools for critical social analysis. Nevertheless, in recent years critical objections have been raised against the governmentality approach. It has been noted by some observers that the Foucauldian and post-structuralist language, originally used for critical academic purposes, seems to be increasingly appropriated by ‘the powers’ that were the object of such critique. Most notably, this point has been voiced (although in different versions) by Zizek, Boltanski, and Hardt and Negri. These thinkers suggest that a post-structural ‘politics of difference’ increasingly seems to be an integral part of the ways, in which institutions and companies organise themselves. If modern liberal government has begun to speak for the dissolution of binary essentials, the destabilisation of rigid power structures, the creation of space for the subject’s self-transforming work upon itself, and so on. In light of this development, we need to think of ways to revitalise the Foucauldian concepts of critique/criticism. A central theme of the PhD course is the search for effective analytical strategies for critique of power (some perhaps less noticed) in the works of Foucault and other writers in the governmentality tradition.

The course requires the submission of a paper that deals with conceptual problems or analytical designs in relation to Foucauldian inspired/governmentality studies. Furthermore, papers that apply Foucauldian concepts to empirical problems in a variety of domains are welcomed. It is also possible to participate on the basis of an abstract stating the theme of the PhD project.

An abstract should be approximately 1 page, whereas a paper should be approx. 5 pages. In both cases, the PhD student should state his main analytical challenge/concern at his/her current stage in the project. Papers/abstracts must be in English.
DEADLINE is 26 April, 2011.

Wednesday, 4 May.
10:00-12:30
Kaspar Villadsen
Analytical approaches in governmentality studies

12:30-13:30
Lunch

13:30-16:00
Mitchell Dean
Ways to move beyond the governmentality framework

16:00-17:00
Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean
Papers from Ph.D. scholars

Thursday, 5 May.

10.00-12.30
Mitchell Dean
Contemporary Neoliberialism and ways to analyse it

12:30-13:30
Lunch

13.30-15.00
Kaspar Villadsen
Statephobia, civil society and critique in postfoucauldian thinking

15.00-17.00
Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean
Papers from Ph.D. scholars

Friday, 6 May

10:00-11:30
Afonso Moreira
Making up people: Foucault combined with ethnography

11:00-12:30
Sverre Raffnsøe
The dispositive of welfare: A diagnosis of the present

12.30-13.30
Lunch

13:30-15:00
Marius Gudmand-Høyer
Dispositive analysis: the key analytical strategy of Foucault?

15.00-16.00
Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean
Papers from Ph.D. scholars

16:00-17:00
Kaspar Villadsen & Mitchell Dean
Concluding discussion and evaluation

Teaching methods
The course will use lectures given by specialists in the field, roundtable discussions, and presentation of papers from PhD students. Participation in the course requires a paper with an outline of Ph.D. project or parts of the project. See more details above.

Course literature

Dean, M. (2007) Governing Societies: Political Perspectives on Domestic and International Rule. Maidenhead: Open University Press (especially Introduction and conclusion). ·

Dean, M. (2010) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Societies (2nd edition). London: Sage (especially Introduction to Second Edition and chapter 10)._ ·

Foucault, M. (2007) Security, Territory, Population. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (especially lecture 5) ·

Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (especially lecture 12). ·

Deleuze, G. (1990) Postscript on Control Societies, in: G. Deleuze:
Negotiations 1972-1990. New York: Columbia University Press ·

Raffnsøe, S. & Gudmand-Høyer, M.The Dispositive, Unpublished article ·

Villadsen, K.& Karlsen, M.P. (2008) “Who Should Do the Talking? The proliferation
of dialogue as governmental technology”, in: Culture & Organization, no. 14, vol. 4.

Villadsen, K. (2008) “Doing without the State and Civil Society as Universals: ‘Dispositifs’ of care across the classic sector divide”, in: Journal of Civil Society, no. 4, vol. 3.

Rose, N. (1996) ‘The Death of the Social’, in: Economy and Society.

Hardt, M. &Negri, A. (2000) ‘Symptoms of change(?), in Empire.

Enrolment
Please send your application to Julie Siezing ( jsi.lpf@cbs.dk) no later than April 1, 2011.

Seminar coordinator
Kaspar Villadsen
Associate Professor, PhD
Department of Management , Politics & Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
Porcelænshaven 18a
2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark
Phone: (45) 3815-3649 / (45) 2721-3264
E-mail: kv.lpf@cbs.dk

Conférence de Giorgio AGAMBEN : Archéologie du commandement et de la volonté (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

6 March 2011

Conférence de Giorgio AGAMBEN : Archéologie du commandement et de la volonté
Mardi 5 avril 18h30 –
Salle des Conférences,
Lycée Henri IV, 23 rue Clovis, 75005 Paris

Conférence organisée par le CIPh dans le cadre de la convention avec le Lycée Henri IV.

Auteur d’une oeuvre déjà considérable, Giorgio Agamben a entrepris une vaste enquête sur la généalogie du pouvoir contemporain et de son ambition d’intervenir directement sur la vie nue des individus, les séparant par là-même des formes de vie dans lesquelles leur existence a vocation à trouver sens et horizon ; dans le sillage des réflexions initiées par Michel Foucault sur la « biopolitique », mais déplaçant la recherche des sources de celles-ci vers un examen du corpus juridique et théologique, à l’échelle de l’histoire de l’Occident, il interroge à nouveaux frais les origines de la souveraineté et de ses corrélats (son ambition d’un gouvernement économique des hommes et des choses, qui trouve son contrepoint dans la nécessité d’un appareil cérémonial et liturgique en lequel sa gloire trouve à se retremper). Ses investigations se tournent aujourd’hui vers l’archéologie du commandement, confirmant ainsi que l’émergence de la question « pourquoi obéir ? » marque, dans le sillage d’Hannah Arendt, une inflexion décisive dans la philosophie politique de notre temps.

Giorgio Agamben, professeur d’esthétique à l’Université IUAV de Venise, est en 2010-2011 professeur invité à l’Université Paris 8. Il a récemment publié, aux Éditions du Seuil, Le Règne et la gloire (Homo sacer II, 2, 2008).

Discutant:
Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, président de l’assemblée collégiale du Collège international de philosophie et membre du comité de rédaction de la revue Vacarme.

2011 Meeting of the Foucault Circle

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 March 2011

The 2011 Meeting of the Foucault Circle

For further details see the Foucault Circle website

The 2011 meeting of the Foucault Circle will take place from March 25-27, 2011, and is sponsored by The University of Alberta, Edmonton. Meetings will take place at The Banff Center in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Friday evening, March 25

Evening Reception: PDC Lounge 301

Saturday morning, March 26

7:00-9:00 Breakfast available in Vistas Dining Room

9:00-10:45 Session 1: Parrhesia and Truth (PDC 103)
Moderator: Robert Nichols

Zachary Simpson, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
“The Truths We Tell Ourselves”

Russell Anderson, McMaster University and James Wong, Wilfrid Laurier University
“Truth and the ‘Politics of Ourselves’”

Kevin Thompson, DePaul University
“Foucault and the Question of Truth”

10:45-11:05 Coffee Break (PDC 103)

11:05-12:15 Session 2: Neoliberalism (PDC 103)
Moderator: Jana Sawicki

Sam Binkley, Emerson College
“Psychological Life as Enterprise: Neoliberal Transformations in the Government of Interiority”

Erinn Gilson, University of North Florida
“Dangerous Dynamics: Risk, Control, Entrepreneurial Subjectivity and Ethical Relation”

12:30-1:30 Lunch (Vistas Dining Room)
Saturday afternoon, March 26

1:45-3:30 Session 3: Ethics (PDC 103)
Moderator: Ladelle McWhorter

Cressida Heyes, University of Alberta
“Foucault’s Limits: Feminism, Bodies, Experience”

Megan Dean, University of Alberta
“The Muscled Woman and the Weight Lifter: The Importance of the Image in Foucauldian Askesis”

Bryan Bannon, Wesleyan University
“Ethics, Institutions, and Aesthetics: A Political Ecology and the Self”

3:30-3:50 Coffee Break (PDC 103)

3:50-5:00 Session 4: Politics (PDC 103)
Moderator: Jeffrey Bussolini

Johanna Oksala, University of Helsinki
“What is Political Philosophy?”

Ben Golder, University of New South Wales
“Foucault’s Critical Affirmation: Three Figures of Rights”

5:15-6:15pm Business Meeting

Evening Dinner (location TBA)

Sunday Morning, March 27

7:00-9:00 Breakfast available in Vistas Dining Room

9:00-10:45 Session 5: Interlocutors (PDC 103)
Moderator: Dianna Taylor

Richard A. Lynch, DePauw University
“Freedom’s Justification: Foucault’s and Beauvoir’s as Complementary Ethical Projects”

Nathan Eckstrand, Duquesne University
“Foucault, Arendt, and the Possibility for a Transformational Politics”

Alain Beaulieu, Laurentian University
“Foucault: A Radical Follower of Canguilhem”

10:45-11:05 Coffee Break (PDC 103)

11:05-12:15 Session 6: Health (PDC 103)
Moderator: Salvatore Cucchiara

Gary Mullen, Gettysburg College
“The Biopolitics of Autism”

Jacob P. Neal, University of Maryland-Baltimore County
“Rethinking Representations of Health and Disease: Foucault and the U.S. Center for Disease Control Reports on AIDS”

CFP: The Imperfect Historian: Disability Histories in Europe (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 March 2011

Call for Papers
The imperfect Historian: Disability Histories in Europe

«I’m not a professional historian, but nobody is perfect» Michel Foucault, University of Vermont, 27 October 1982

Just like gender, race and class, disability has become a standard analytical category in the historian’s tool chest nowadays. Up until now Paul Longmore and Lauri Umansky’s book The New disability history: American perspectives (2001) still provides the most thoughtful introduction to the burgeoning field. If Longmore and Umansky’s American perspectives have proved to be crucial in the promotion of disability history as a well-established historical field of study it, at the same time, led to a kind of methodological determination based on the social-constructivist approach of history and closely connected to the on-going emancipatory processes of persons with disabilities all over the world. With this call for papers we would like to invite disability scholars working within or on a European context to explore new possible ways of relating the intellectual craft of disability history to the political ideals of emancipation and liberation of persons with disabilities. We especially would like to encourage disability scholars to make use of post-modernist philosophies and theories of history in order to deal with the problematic feature of ‘identity’ in current disability theory.

Inspired by the American perspectives of Longmore and Umansky many disability historians up until now have written disability histories in order to underpin the positivist construction of sovereign, independent emancipated identities for persons with disabilities with historical evidence. Despite the undeniable importance of the concept of ‘identity’ for the social model of disability, it has been argued that in our neo-liberal societies, “power” cannot solely be seen outside or in contrast to identity. Emancipatory processes solely focusing on identity, it is argued, fail to grasp the fact that identity in our neo-liberal societies is placed at the core of power technologies resulting in governable subjectivities. In other words: who we are and what we want to be is now one of the many elements used in strategies to determine how we behave ourselves in the world. Given this contemporary suspicion towards the concept of ‘identity’ we would like to encourage scholars to explore to what extent post-modernist philosophies and theories of history might suggest a way of writing disability histories beyond social-constructivism. Without having the intention of being exhaustive we would like to suggest two possible roads.

First of all it seems attractive to refer to the wide-ranging ideas and insights developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in his thought-provoking oeuvre. If disability historians have, of course, already explored some of Foucault’s ideas in the context of social-constructivists inspired histories it seems that some of Foucault’s later concepts – like governmentality, limit-experiences and Art of life – might enable the disability historian to get rid of the problematic features attached to ‘identity’ without letting go the imperative of social change. With regard to the gay movement, for example, Foucault has argued in at least one interview that it was more important to find out new ways to be gay than to define a gay identity. Based on this relatively unknown Foucauldian perspective in disability circles, disability histories then could try to reconstruct the many possible and sometimes conflicting ways of being that have been explored by persons with disabilities throughout history.

Secondly, we would like to refer to some refreshing meta-historical theories that all, in one way or another, have stressed the fact that also history is a construct and that historians often write narratives in order to prove personal opinions and by using problematic methodologies. It is argued that many historians up until now have used a simplified concept of time – focusing on natural evolution and logical chronologies. While emphasizing the necessity of writing histories that deal with experiences of exclusion and the relationship between power and diversity, authors operating from this new meta-historical perspective have abandoned the representation of history as something which continuously becomes better. Authors like Haydn White, Jörn Rüsen, Walter Benjamin or Reinhardt Kosselleck have argued against this progressive model of history while at the same time underlining the importance of social change. Just like the ideas of Michel Foucault these authors can offer disability historians fruitful pathways that go beyond the social-constructivists histories of disability ‘identity’ and explore new ways in which disability histories can be written.

Generally speaking we would like to encourage disability scholars to submit contributions that explore divergent terrains of disability history, not as much as to stress the existence and importance of disabled identities, but rather to formulate a critique of “normalcy” and to reveal the manifold and often conflicting ways of being disabled in history. One could say that the central motif of this book is the de-construction of borders. Hereby we explicitly aim at enlarging the methodological toolkit of the disability historian by using narrative methods and discourse analysis. As we personally believe that no single history can claim to be perfect or once and for all can reconstruct the past in the light of a better future we would like to provocatively title this collection The imperfect historian.

Based on a notorious statement made by Michel Foucault at the beginning of the 80s, our main intention is to seek possible ways of applying disturbing philosophical and historical theories to the methodology of disability history in order to show that imperfection might be a fruitful perspective for disability historians – just like it is for persons with disabilities.

Anyone interested in this call for papers should electronically send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a brief CV to Sebastian Barsch: s.barsch@uni-koeln.de. The deadline for the abstracts is March 31, 2011. All of the abstracts will be reviewed by the editors of the book proposal: Dr. Sebastian Barsch, Dr. Anne Klein and Dr. Pieter Verstraete. Participants will be notified towards the end of April 2011 whether their abstract is accepted.
The deadline for a first draft of the full article then will be September 30, 2011.

CFP: Apparatuses; Matter; Materialities (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 February 2011

“Apparatuses; Matter; Materialities.”

1st annual graduate conference
Location: Science and Technology Studies at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
Dates May 20-22, 2011:

The concept of the apparatus – both in the general sense of the term, and that employed by Foucault, Deleuze, and Agamben – is in many ways a useful one for considering the complex relationships between science, technology, and society. At the same time, careful study of the sciences may lead us to rethink these conceptualizations of apparatuses and what they do. We invite proposals on any topic related to this concept, from graduate students in all disciplines and at all levels.

Some possible topics for exploration include:

– the genealogy of the apparatus in the history of science

– specific technical or social apparatuses of interest

– interactions between scientific and political apparatuses

– the effects of research in STS and related disciplines on philosophical conceptions of the apparatus

– the relationships between apparatus and thought, apparatus and discourse,
or any other relevant concepts

Our keynote speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Bussolini (CUNY, College of Staten Island), editor of the recent issue of Foucault Studies on Foucault and Agamben. Updates and a more detailed call for abstracts are available at the conference Web site.

Proposals of 250-500 words, plus contact information and institutional affiliation, should be submitted by March 14, 2011, to amcmill@yorku.ca. Please note “Apparatus 2011 Submission” in the subject line. Registration is free.

CFP:Foucault and Heterotopias (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

26 February 2011

[PANEL] Composing Spaces: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference; Foucault and Heterotopias
(May 13, 2011)

From the University of Penn English cfp website

Description

“I am interested in certain [sites] that have the curious property of being in relation to all other sites, but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invert the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror or reflect. These spaces, as it were…are linked with all others, which however contradict all other sites” —Michel Foucault [1]

Michel Foucault’s theoretical oeuvre reaches far and wide and the study of space is arguably one of the fields most prominently impacted and informed by his work. Specifically, Foucault’s theory of heterotopias, introduced during his 1967 lecture, “Of Other Spaces,” affords a means of countering the basic, societal truths of the realms we occupy while “suspect[ing], neutraliz[ing], and invert[ing] the set of relations they happen to mirror, or reflect.” With this in mind, this panel seeks to examine heterotopic spaces, whether—and by no means limited to—physical, geographical, literary, cyber, social, or cultural, in order to illuminate and perhaps even complicate their cultural implications. Furthermore, papers may seek to answer larger, theoretical questions about heterotopias, the benefits of such theoretical applications, and Foucault’s effects on theories of space, more generally.

Abstracts are invited from all disciplines. Please send a 300-word abstract by March 1, 2011 to Ashley Reis at AshleyReis@my.unt.edu. Deadline for panel proposals is March 18, 2011.

[1] Foucault, Michel and Miskoweic, Jay. “Of Other Spaces.” Diacritics Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1986): 22-27.

Moss Garden – exhibition by Anna Betbeze (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

25 February 2011

ANNA BETBEZE: ‘Moss Garden’

Kate Werble Gallery
83 Vandam Street
SoHo
New York
Until March 12 2011

Review by Karen Rosenberg

Flokati rugs, those fluffy white coverings traditionally handmade in the Pindus Mountains in Europe and prized by contemporary designers, become wild-and-woolly wall reliefs in Anna Betbeze’s first New York solo. Ms. Betbeze dyes, scorches, shreds, shaves and otherwise attacks these shaggy objects until they start to look more like sheep’s carcasses than sheep’s coats. […]

These titles (and the show’s title, “Moss Garden”) refer to Michel Foucault, who lectured that “the garden is a rug onto which the whole world comes to enact its symbolic perfection, and the rug is a sort of garden that can move across space.” Fortunately the artworks don’t take themselves as seriously; they have a wonderfully forlorn, abject quality that inspires more empathy than theory.

Brisbane Foucault Reading Group (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

24 February 2011

The Brisbane Foucault Reading Group will run this semester with the assistance of the Centre for Learning Innovation in the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology.

It will run from 12-2pm every Tuesday fortnight starting 8 March 2011.

The venue in March is Room L113/4 and the venue for subsequent meetings is R614 (the top floor of the library) at Kelvin Grove campus, QUT, Victoria Park Rd.

Aims of the group
The aim of this group is to provide an informal setting to read and discuss the work of French theorist Michel Foucault. Foucault’s work is used widely across an enormous range of theoretical and applied disciplines. This group is designed for both postgraduate students and academics from any discipline who would like the opportunity to clarify Foucault’s ideas and develop applications in a group setting. Members of the group are also invited to nominate material by Foucault of relevance to their own work which they would particularly like to discuss. There will be set texts for participants to read before each session.

Convenor
Clare O’Farrell is the author of two books on Foucault. She has also edited a book on his work, was a founding editor of the international peer reviewed online journal Foucault Studies and runs a large website on Foucault at www.michel-foucault.com. She is founder and convener of the AARE Poststructual Theory Special Interest Group. She runs a blog with occasional Foucault content titled Refracted Input as well as the Foucault News blog

Dates
8, 22 March
5, 19, April
10, 24, 31 May

Text for this semester
A systematic reading of the following text will be undertaken this semester:

Michel Foucault, (2010) [2008]. The Government of Self and Others. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982- 1983. Tr. Graham Burchell. New York: Picador.

Stephanie Clare, Foucault, Geopower, and the Transformation of the Earth (2011)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

23 February 2011

The Foucault Society, NYC
2011 Colloquium Series: New Research in Foucault Studies

Please join us for the first colloquium in our new series:

Stephanie Clare, “Foucault, Geopower, and the Transformation of the Earth”

Time: 3 March 2011· 19:00 – 21:30
Location CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5409
New York, NY, USA

Free and open to the public. For more information or to RSVP, email: foucaultsocietyorg@gmail.com

Abstract:
This paper introduces an analysis of “geopower”–the force relations that transform the earth–by reading Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and Security, Territory, Population alongside the archive of Canadian settler colonialism, specifically the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the nineteenth century. Geopower physically transforms the earth through techniques such as urban planning, architecture, engineering, agriculture, and surveying–as well as digging, logging, and marking territory. Its analysis demonstrates that power relations are not only operative between humans: multiple forms of life transform the earth. Although geopower subtends both biopower and sovereign power, it is a repressed presence in Foucault’s writing, perhaps because it does not have humans as its target. This analysis therefore puts pressure on Foucauldian understandings of power.

Stephanie Clare is a PhD candidate in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Her dissertation, “Earthly Encounters: Readings in Poststructuralism, Feminist Theory, and Canadian Settler Colonialism,” touches upon feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory, twentieth-century French philosophy, and settler colonial studies. She has published articles in Hypatia and Exit Nine, and has received grants from SSHRC and FQRSC.

Website
Facebook
Twitter: @foucaultsociety

E-mail: foucaultsocietyorg@gmail.com

**For directions to the CUNY Graduate Center, please see here.