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"

Thursday, March 3, 2011
7:00-9:30pm

CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5409
New York, NY

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.

About the Colloquium Series:
The 2011 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, supportive audience of 
colleagues.

To RSVP, please send an e-mail to Shifra Diamond, Colloquium Chair, at: 
[log in to unmask]

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

Website:  www.foucaultsociety.org
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12929420844
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]


****
Shifra Diamond
Doctoral Candidate
Human Sciences: Program in Language, Culture & Society
George Washington University
Campus e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Home e-mail: [log in to unmask]