ANTHR 4450

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  • Schedule of Classes - November 13, 2024 8:41AM EST
  • Course Catalog - November 12, 2024 10:26AM EST
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ANTHR 4450
Introduction to Biopolitics

Course information provided by the 2023-2024 Catalog.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the relation between biological and the political, power and resistance, and life and death.  Fifty years ago, the philosopher Michel Foucault offered two terms to describe it: biopolitics and biopower.  In this introduction to both, we take up Foucault's writings on biopolitics in a series of interdisciplinary contexts, including but not limited to the philosophical, anthropological, and political.  In addition to Foucault, w will be reading elaborations on what has been called "the biopolitical paradigm" from writers as diverse as Agamben, Arendt, Arif, Biehl, Butler, Esposito, Fassin, Mbembe, and Sloterdijk.  Questions to be asked include how to describe relation between biopolitics and racism and in what ways has the pandemic altered our understanding of biopolitics.


Distribution Category (CA-AS, HST-AS)

When Offered Spring.

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ANTHR 7450, ITAL 4250, ITAL 6250

  • 3 Credits Opt NoAud

  • 17096 ANTHR 4450   SEM 101

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  • Instruction Mode: In Person