Purpose and Plan | Reading Schedule | Blog | Working Papers | Participants | Contact | Links
Purpose and Plan
'Foucault Across the Disciplines' is a cross-disciplinary research cluster dedicated to the exploration of the thought and impact of Michel Foucault. We meet at UCSC on Fridays to discuss Foucault's work, secondary literature on Foucault, and our own uses of Foucault and his concepts.
We are currently planning a cross-disciplinary Foucault conference (sponsored by the Center for Cultural Studies) to take place at UCSC, Mar 1-2, 2008. More details to follow or email the address below if you would like further information.
One goal of our group is to read Foucault 'across' the disciplines in at least two senses: as an interdisciplinary project drawing on work from across the spectrum and as a counterdisciplinary critique performatively questioning the way in which such work often carves itself up into isolable disciplinary contexts.
Reading and Meeting Schedule
Tentative Winter Quarter 2008 Readings (Tuesdays, 11.00am-12.30pm, Humanities Bldg 1 Room 345): This quarter we are reading the newest Foucault publication, the 1978 College de France course lectures, published as Security, Territory, Population.
Fall Quarter 2007 Readings: This quarter we focused on relations between the work of Ian Hacking and Michel Foucault, in anticipation of Prof. Hacking's planned visit to UCSC during the Winter 08 quarter. We read selections from Hacking's Historical Ontology and his Mad Travelers as well as selections by Foucault including "The Order of Discourse" and "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History".
Spring Quarter 2007 Readings: Focusing on Foucault's later works on ethics, subjectivity, and sexuality we began with Foucault's methodological "Introduction" to The History of Sexuality, volume 2 before reading a good portion of Foucault's recently-translated 1982 course lectures at the Collège de France, The Hermeneutics of the Subject.
Winter Quarter 2007 Readings: A selection of Foucault's essays, lectures, and interviews that span from his middle work on power and discipline to his late work on ethics, subjectivity, and freedom. Primary readings were "The Subject and Power," "Governmentality," "Omnes et Singulatim," "What is Enlightenment?," and "The Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom".
Group Blog
An online blog for ongoing collaboration between our meetings has been set up at http://foucaultacrossthedisciplines.blogspot.com. The blog is free and open to any and all users. We request that you register on blogspot before commenting (so we can keep track of who says what) but we do not require it.
Online Working Papers
This site will host working papers by reading group participants and any other interested Foucault scholars working elsewhere. The idea is to provide a useful forum for offering and receiving comments on ongoing work prior to publication.
Colin Koopman - "A New Foucault: The Coming Revisions in Foucault Studies", a draft review essay of Eric Paras's Foucault 2.0 and four other recent books by Johanna Oksala, David Hoy, C.G. Prado, and Paul Rabinow.
Participants
The group is always open to additional participants: graduate students, postdocs, and faculty across the UCSC community are welcome. We are particularly eager to develop a vibrant cross-disciplinary dialogue so as to better understand the various ways in which Foucaultian concepts can be deployed in different contexts.
Colin Koopman, Postdoctoral Humanities Research Fellow, Philosophy Department, UC Santa Cruz 2006 thru 2008.
Daniel Narey, Ph.D. Student, Sociology Department, UC Santa Cruz.
Tomas Matza, Ph.D. Candiate, Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford University.
Sara Orning, Ph.D. Student, Literature Department, UC Santa Cruz.
Noriko Aso, Assistant Professor, History Department, UC Santa Cruz.
David Hoy, Professor, Philosophy Department, UC Santa Cruz.
Brian Malone, Ph.D. Student, Literature Department, UC Santa Cruz.
Amanda Shuman, Ph.D. Student, History Department, UC Santa Cruz.
Additional Information
Please send an email to foucaultacrossthedisciplines@gmail.com for additional information.
Online Foucault Resources
Foucault Texts at thefoucauldian: including "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History"
Foucault Texts at foucault.info: including "What is Enlightenment?" and "Omnes et Singulatim"
Foucault Dictionary: useful description of key concepts
The Foucault Society: deploying Foucault inside and outside the academy
The Foucault Circle
Foucault Studies: online journal focusing on Foucault's work and its development
Anthropology of the Contemporary Research Collaboratory: current Foucaultian research collaboration.