Foucault News

The Confessions of the Flesh – International colloquium in Chile (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

4 October 2022

The Institute of Theology and Religious Studies (ITER) of Alberto Hurtado University, Chile, organized the International Colloquium “The Confessions of the Flesh”, on
Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 September 2022.

Link to program

The Colloquium aimed at a critical reception of “The Confessions of the Flesh”, the fourth volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality. Published posthumously, this text contains a study on the shaping of the experience of the flesh in the thought of the Church Fathers and in the practices of early Christianity. The inaugural conference was given by Phillepe Butggen and was broadcasted on Youtube, so you can check it out at the following link.

Following the Colloquium, an internal workshop entitled “Foucault and Religions” was held on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 September. In this instance, the possibilities offered by the methodology of M. Foucault and his conclusions on the religious problem from the historical-philosophical study were discussed, being a contribution to investigate questions of the religious phenomenon in the present.

The following academics participated in the Colloquium and workshop:
• Carlos Álvarez (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile),
• Martín Bernales (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile),
• Vicente Cortés (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile),
• Xavier Morales (Universidad Católica, Chile),
• Roberto Saldías (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile),
• Adán Salinas (U. Academia Humanismo Cristiano, Chile)
• Tuillang Yuing (U. Academia Humanismo Cristiano, Chile),
• Mariana Galvéz,
• Felipe Orellana (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile),
• Philippe Büttgen (U. Paris 1, France),
• César Candiotto (PUC Paraná, Brazil),
• Orazio Irrera (U. Paris 8, France),
• Edward McGushin (U. StoneHill, USA),
• Marcelo Raffin (UBA, Argentina),
• Philippe Sabot (U. de Lille, France).

The Colloquium is sponsored by the Michel Foucault Center, the French-Chilean Initiative for Higher Studies, the PhD program in Philosophy UAH and the Fondecyt nº 11180085.
In the following link you can find the program of the colloquium and the workshop.

Lemke, T. Conceptualising Suspended Life: From Latency to Liminality (2022).

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 October 2022

Lemke, T. (2022). Conceptualising Suspended Life: From Latency to Liminality. Theory, Culture & Society,
https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221113737

Abstract
The article focuses on the ability of some animals and plants to respond to changing environmental conditions by temporarily suspending metabolic processes. In contemporary biology, this state between life and death is commonly labelled ‘cryptobiosis’, combining the Greek kryptos (hidden, concealed, secret) with biōsis (mode of life). I argue that the notion of ‘cryptobiosis’ does not account sufficiently for the processual and relational dimensions of ametabolic life. The article advances a related but different concept, which better addresses this liminal state of biological organisation: suspended life. While cryptobiosis still nurtures the imaginary of some latent life, suspended life stresses the liminality of the neither-nor life and death. The notion also grasps the dynamic and ongoing transfer between the biological and the technological. While the debate on cryptobiosis has so far remained confined to the description of natural processes, suspended life (or limbiosis) promises to account for contemporary technological practices of cryopreservation.

Foucault and Derrida in Couples Therapy with Freud (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

3 October 2022

Foucault and Derrida in Couples Therapy with Freud

Parrhesia Berlin
Tuesdays 6-8 pm. Weekly from 18 October – 15 November (5 evenings)
Course by Dr. Leon Brenner

Where: Gerichtstrasse 45, 13347 Berlin-Wedding (courtyard). U-Bahn: U6 & U9 Leopoldplatz; S-Bahn: Wedding

Description
Michel Foucault’s innovative approach to madness in History of Madness greatly impacted the antipsychiatry movement of the 1960s and gave rise to the contemporary field of ‘mad studies’. It ignited a long dispute with Jacques Derrida and eventually drove Foucault to harshly criticize Derrida in the second edition of his book, deeply affecting their friendship. In response, Derrida rebuked the novelty of Foucault’s project in a series of essays, finally subordinating it to the same discourse it came to denounce: psychoanalysis. In this lecture we will discuss key factors in Foucault and Derrida’s long polemical argument over the question of madness. By doing so, the intersection of Foucault’s theory of madness with Freud’s psychoanalysis will be shown to be very fruitful territory. In particular, there will be a focus on Foucault’s philosophical elaboration of a constitutive exclusion underlying the discourse on reason and unreason, as well as his insistence on that exclusion’s singular relationship with madness. This notion will then be developed in psychoanalytic terms augmenting the constitutive gesture that Freud attributed to the plurality of subjective structures elaborated in his metapsychology.

Week 1, Tuesday 18 October: Foucault’s archaeology and the history of madness

Week 2, Tuesday 25 October: Structuralism, closed-sets and constitutive exclusions

Week 3, Tuesday 1 November: Derrida’s post-structural polemic and Foucault ‘strikes back’

Week 4, Tuesday 8 November: Freud’s hospitality to madness out of the hospital

Week 5, Tuesday 15 November: The future of madness—Lacan and subjectivity

Ebook subscription service: Foucault Collection (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 October 2022

Editor: Perlego, an ebook library launched in 2016, offers a paid subscription service to access a variety of academic and professional ebooks. They have a very substantial collection of currently 431 books relating to Foucault, mainly in English, but also in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. The collection also includes a selection of works by Foucault in various translations.

Perlego’s mission
To make education accessible to all.
We believe education is a human right, so we built an online library with accessibility, affordability and sustainability at its core.

Not so long ago our founders, Gauthier and Matt, were students struggling to pay for textbooks, like so many of their peers. Textbook prices continue to skyrocket, leaving students unable to afford the resources they need. Some students resort to piracy and second-hand books, but many others are priced out of the education system altogether. This not only limits students’ access to knowledge but also leaves researchers, authors and the publishing industry at a loss.

Perlego was born to provide an affordable (and sustainable) textbook solution for learners around the world, by partnering with publishers and removing the costs of print, distribution, and retail markup.

Perlego FAQ

Sophie Raine, Study guide: What is Foucault’s Theory of Power & Knowledge? (2022-2024)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 October 2022

What is Foucault’s Theory of Power & Knowledge?, Perlego, online subscription library of e-books, Date Published: 08.03.2023, Last Updated: 19.07.2024

Michel Foucault (1926-89) was a French philosopher and sociologist notable for his works Madness and Civilization (1961), Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976). A persistent theme in Foucault’s work is the relationship between power and knowledge, culminating in his neologism ‘power/knowledge’. The term power/knowledge demonstrates how, for Foucault, power and knowledge are inextricably linked. Foucault writes that ‘the exercise of power itself creates and causes to emerge new objects of knowledge and accumulates new bodies of information…[t]he exercise of power perpetually creates knowledge and, conversely, knowledge constantly induces effects of power’ (1975, 52). Power and knowledge are not separate nor are they synonymous; instead, power both makes use of and shapes knowledge.
[…]

Written by: Sophie Raine
Sophie Raine is a final-year PhD student at Lancaster University studying Victorian penny dreadfuls. Her work focuses on working-class popular culture and urban spaces. Her previous publications have been featured in VPFA (2019) and the Palgrave Handbook for Steam Age Gothic (2021) and her co-edited collection Penny Dreadfuls and the Gothic is due for release in 2022 with University of Wales Press.

Perlego’s mission

Paul Veyne (1930-2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

1 October 2022

Paul Veyne, grand historien français de l’Antiquité, est mort, Le Devoir
Claude Casteran – Agence France-Presse à Paris
29 septembre 2022

L’historien de l’Antiquité Paul Veyne, salué pour son érudition et son enthousiasme pour transmettre sa passion des mondes grec et romain dans une oeuvre aussi savante qu’iconoclaste, est mort à l’âge de 92 ans, ont indiqué jeudi les éditions Albin Michel.
[…]
Professeur émérite au Collège de France, apprécié pour l’audace de son style et ses approches novatrices, Paul Veyne a été également une grande figure du débat intellectuel en France.
[…]
Ami du philosophe Michel Foucault, admirateur du poète René Char — il a consacré un livre à chacun —, Paul Veyne a notamment écrit Le pain et le cirque, Les Grecs ont-ils cru à leurs mythes ?, Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien ou L’élégie érotique romaine

L’historien Paul Veyne est mort. Il nous avait parlé de l’Antiquité et de l’amour
Par François Armanet et Gilles Anquetil, L’Obs. Publié le 29 septembre 2022

Spécialiste de l’Antiquité grecque et romaine, détenteur de la chaire Histoire de Rome au Collège de France, Paul Veyne est mort, jeudi 29 septembre, à l’âge de 92 ans.

En 2014, à l’occasion de la publication de son livre de souvenirs, « Et dans l’éternité je ne m’ennuierai pas », nous l’avions rencontré pour évoquer ses engagements et sa passion de l’Antiquité. Nous republions cet entretien avec tristesse.
[…]
Paul Veyne, né en 1930, a été l’un des plus grands historiens de l’Antiquité romaine. Il a publié, chez Albin Michel, une œuvre importante, dont « Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien », « Foucault, sa pensée, sa personne », « Mon musée imaginaire », et une traduction de « l’Enéide ».« Et dans l’éternité je ne m’ennuierai pas » a été publié en 2014.

Behind paywalls
Most of the other major French newspapers also have obituaries.

Mort de l’historien de l’Antiquité Paul Veyne, la fin d’une savante odyssée, Libération

L’historien Paul Veyne, spécialiste de l’Antiquité grecque et romaine, est mort, Le Monde

Coloquio Internacional «Las Confesiones de la carne» (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 September 2022

Coloquio Internacional «Las Confesiones de la carne»
El Instituto de Teología y Estudios Religiosos (ITER) de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado invita a participar del Coloquio Internacional “Las Confesiones de la Carne”, que tendrá lugar los días lunes 26 y martes 27 de Septiembre en la UAH.

Program

El Coloquio se propone realizar una recepción crítica de «Las confesiones de la carne», el cuarto volumen de la Historia de la sexualidad de Michel Foucault. Publicado póstumamente, este texto contiene un estudio sobre la conformación la experiencia de la carne en el pensamiento de los padres de la Iglesia y en las prácticas del primer cristianismo.

Los y las invitamos a inscribirse en el Coloquio en el siguiente link.

Luego del Coloquio, los días miércoles 28 y jueves 29 de septiembre, se realizará un Workshop interno titulado «Foucault y las religiones». Esta será una instancia para discutir las posibilidades que ofrece la metodología de M. Foucault y sus conclusiones sobre el problema religioso a partir del estudio histórico filosófico. Esto será un aporte para investigar cuestiones del fenómeno religioso en el presente.

Tanto el Coloquio como el Workshop contarán con la participación de académicos y académicas nacionales, como Carlos Álvarez (UAH), Martín Bernales (UAH), Vicente Cortés (UAH), Claudia Leal (UC), Xavier Morales (UC), Roberto Saldías (UAH), Adán Salinas (UAHC), Tuillang Yuing (UAHC), Ximena Zabala (UAH) y Felipe Orellana (UAH) y de académicos internacionales, como Philippe Büttgen (U. Paris 1), César Candiotto (PUC Paraná), Orazio Irrera (U. Paris 8), Edward McGushin (U. StoneHill), Marcelo Raffin (UBA) y Philippe Sabot (U.de Lille).

El Coloquio cuenta con el patrocinio del Centro Michel Foucault, la Iniciativa Franco-Chilena de Altos Estudios, el programa de doctorado de Filosofía UAH y el Fondecyt nº 11180085.

Additional links

https://iter.uahurtado.cl/coloquio-internacional-las-confesiones-de-la-carne/
https://www.uahurtado.cl/coloquio-las-confesiones-de-la-carne/
https://sites.google.com/uc.cl/coloquioiterlasconfesiones/espa%C3%B1ol

CFP: Special Issue. Foucault and Contemporary Theory in Higher Education: New approaches, theories, and conditions of possibility (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

26 September 2022

Francesca Peruzzo and Aaron Kuntz are calling for abstracts for a special issue of
Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education titled: Foucault and Contemporary Theory in Higher Education: New approaches, theories, and conditions of possibility.

The idea behind this special issue is to expand Foucault’s analytical toolbox, intersecting new epistemological and analytical approaches to explore and problematize the current situation of higher education. The special issue aims to make visible experiences, methods, practices, epistemologies and ontologies that value and recognize modalities of being and doing in higher education that challenge and go beyond its present neoliberal and performative conformation.

You can find more information here:

The call can also be found here

The deadline to submit an extended abstract is November 1st, 2022. The completed manuscript (if the abstract is selected) is due November 1st, 2023.

Workshop on Foucault’s Historical Method – Brisbane, Australia (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

4 comments

26 September 2022

A Workshop on Foucault’s Historical Method

Tuesday 27 September 2022

Due to a high level of interest, please note the change of venue. Now at:
To be held from 1.00 to 5.00 p.m. in the Seminar Room 201, Level 2, Michie Building (9), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
G8 on the UQ St Lucia Campus Map brochure

Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

Foucault’s historical method is often understood to have had two overlapping phases or alternating modalities: an archaeological one and a genealogical one. His accounts of historical “biopower,” of scholarly “ascesis” and of “history of the present” have all stimulated new historical forms of inquiry in several disciplines in the twenty-first century.

We propose to delve beneath the widespread influence of Foucault in historical inquiry to ask what it means to engage with history in a Foucauldian manner.

For example, the notion of a genealogical method is now in widespread use among historians. While Nietzsche often serves in that regard as a philosophical predecessor, that does not in itself provide a circumstantiated account of what “genealogical method” might mean in historical practice. Can we begin to provide one by referring to Foucault’s approach? Is there conversely some possibility of a revival of Foucault’s earlier, “archaeological” method? Or does the logic of Foucault’s thought indeed point beyond either of these programmatic methodologies, as indicated in the less doxastic historical inquiries of Foucault produced in his last years?

We are open broadly to questions relating to Foucault’s engagements with the historical past, for example:

• The status of Foucault’s individual works, such as:
o The Birth of the Clinic, not the most widely read of Foucault’s texts, but one to which some historians have attached particular importance;
o the methodology of Foucault’s Order of Things, and its relation to structuralism and post-structuralism in France;
o Foucault’s most quoted and most sloganised work, the first volume of his History of Sexuality, and its influence in the history and cultural studies of gender and sexuality;
o the recently, posthumously published fourth volume of Foucault’s History of Sexuality, Les Aveux de la chair (Confessions of the Flesh). What can be said about the significance of this volume for its practice of historical method?
• Foucault’s observations about the formation of biomedicine and how they have helped to shape subsequent critical and historical studies of it.
• Historical approaches to understanding Foucault’s ideas themselves as historical artefacts.

There will be a series of short presentations interspersed with discussion.

Presenters will be:
Mark Kelly (Philosophy, Western Sydney)
Alison Downham Moore (Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney)
Lucia Pozzi (IASH and Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, UQ) (tbc)
Andrea Josipovic (IASH)
Cassie Byrnes (Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, UQ)
Karin Sellberg (Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, UQ)
Peter Cryle (IASH)

Afternoon tea will be provided. It will help with our planning if you indicate by email to the following address that you are planning to attend iash.ea@uq.edu.au

God save the Queue: how the wait to see the Queen’s coffin transformed people (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

21 September 2022

Stephen Reicher, God save the Queue: how the wait to see the Queen’s coffin transformed people, The Conversation, Tue 20 Sep 2022

strange thing has happened since last week, when I wrote about how myself and other social psychologists were studying the crowds of people queueing to watch the ceremonials following the death of Queen Elizabeth – finding out the many reasons and motivations for taking part in this mass event. It seems the Queue itself – and what it supposedly tells us about the state of our nation – has become as big a story as the ceremonies. We stopped watching the pageantry and started watching ourselves watching the pageants.
[…]

Most of the discussion of the response to the Queen’s death has focused simply on what it tells us about ourselves as a society. But that is to miss the importance of how these events actively change people. We do not come out of the last 10 days as we went in. But that is the whole point of such ceremonials. They are technologies for engineering souls. And by investigating them, we gain crucial insights into how that process works.

Stephen Reicher is a professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an authority on crowd psychology