Michel Foucault’s Collège de France Lectures (1970-1984):
13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia
Reading the Foucault Collège de France Lectures
with
Seyla Benhabib, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Veena Das, François Ewald, Didier Fassin, James Faubion, Nancy Fraser, Frédéric Gros, Daniele Lorenzini, Nancy Luxon, Achille Mbembe, Paul Rabinow, Judith Revel, Pierre Rosanvallon, Ann Stoler, and Linda Zerilli
in conversation with Columbia University colleagues
Etienne Balibar, Partha Chatterjee, Jean Cohen, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Katherine Franke, Robert Gooding-Williams, Stathis Gourgouris, Axel Honneth, Jeremy Kessler, Lydia Liu, Anna Lvovsky, Sharon Marcus, Alondra Nelson, John Rajchman, Emmanuelle Saada, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Kendall Thomas, Adam Tooze, and Nadia Urbinati
Moderated by
Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco
Race war, biopolitics, the hermeneutics of the self, governmentality, the examination of one’s conscience, sécurité, the courage of truth, illégalismes, juridical forms, governing through truth, the “punitive society,” truth-telling, judicial apparatuses of repression, the Nu-pieds rebellions of 1639, parrhesia … Michel Foucault’s thirteen years of lectures at the Collège de France introduced us to new concepts and novel research avenues. For many of us, those avenues have been fertile ground for our own theorization, for others fertile ground for critique. They represent, as Foucault intended, rich and productive “pistes de recherches.”
With the publication of the entire series of lectures at the Collège de France—the last, Théories et institutions pénales (1971-1972) just released in May 2015—it is now time to read them chronologically: to grasp the overall project of those lectures at the Collège, to discuss the full trajectory, and to continue to excavate our own “pistes de recherche” building on Foucault’s.
The Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought and the Columbia Society of Fellows, with the support of the Maison Française, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, are delighted to host 13 seminars on the 13 courses. The seminar series—Foucault 13/13—will extend over the full 2015-2016 academic year at Columbia University. The seminar series will be open to Columbia faculty, fellows, and students, as well as faculty and students from other New York universities.
Each seminar will be led by distinguished scholars from different disciplines. The seminars will take place on Monday evenings in the Fall semester (2015) and Thursday evenings in the Spring semester (2016) from 6:15pm to 8:45pm.
The seminars will be open to students and faculty from Columbia University and other New York universities (please bring university ID). If you are interested in attending and would like a place reserved at the seminar table, please send an e-mail explaining your interest to Claire Merrill at cm3325@columbia.edu.
Seminar Series Schedule: Foucault 13/13
Monday, September 14, 2015:
Lessons on the Will to Know (1970-1971)
James Faubion, Rice University
and
Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota
Maison Française
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Monday, September 28, 2015:
Penal Theories and Institutions (1971-1972)
Etienne Balibar, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre & Columbia University
and
François Ewald, Series Editor of Foucault’s Collège de France Lectures
Casa Hispánica
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Monday, October 12, 2015:
The Punitive Society (1972-1973)
Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) & EHESS,
Axel Honneth, University of Frankfurt & Columbia University, and
Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Monday, October 26, 2015:
Psychiatric Power (1973-1974)
Linda Zerilli, University of Chicago,
Anna Lvovsky, Columbia University, and
Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Monday, November 16, 2015:
Abnormal (1974-1975)
Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University,
Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France, Paris, and
Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University
Maison Française
7:00 to 9:00pm
***
Monday, November 23, 2015:
“Society must be defended” (1975-1976)
Ann Stoler, The New School,
Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, and
Robert Gooding-Williams, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Monday, December 7, 2015:
Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978)
Seyla Benhabib, Yale University
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University, and
Adam Tooze, Columbia University
Maison Française
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, January 28, 2016:
The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-1979)
Nancy Fraser, The New School
and
Kendall Thomas, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, February 11, 2016:
The Government of the Living (1979-1980)
Achille Mbembe, University of the Witwatersrand,
Daniele Lorenzini, Université Paris-Est Créteil, and
Jean Cohen, Columbia University
Maison Française
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, February 25, 2016:
Subjectivity and Truth (1980-1981)
Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley,
Katherine Franke, Columbia University, and
Stathis Gourgouris, Columbia University
Maison Française
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, March 10, 2016:
The Hermeneutics of the Subject (1981-1982)
Homi Bhabha, Harvard University,
Paul Rabinow, University of California Berkeley, and
Lydia Liu, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, March 31, 2016:
The Government of Self and Others (1982-1983)
Judith Revel, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre,
Sharon Marcus, Columbia University, and
John Rajchman, Columbia University
Heyman Center Common Room
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
Thursday, April 14, 2016:
The Courage of Truth (1983-1984)
Frederic Gros, Sciences Po,
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, and
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University
Casa Hispánica
6:15 to 8:45pm
***
All sessions moderated by
Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco