Biopolitics and the State:
The subject of this seminar is “biopolitics” and “governmentality.” The terms are Foucault’s who identifies these life management strategies with maximizing productivity and well-being among the state’s citizenry while withholding life to the point of death from those who are deemed to be incapable of self-governance or are otherwise identified as a “public threat.” Theories of racialization, nation formation, empire, capitalism, and the late modern state supplement Foucault’s understanding of biopolitical governance. We will examine its exercise and effects under colonial rule, US chattel slavery, the post Civil War Era, and the Bush presidency, paying particular attention to the state’s “war on terror.”

Texts:

• Foucalt. History of Sexuality.
• Foucalt. Discipline and Punish.
• Butler. Precarious Life.
• Agamben. State of Exception.
• Agamben. Homo Sacer.