AN/GE 313 - Bio-Politics, Gender & Migration

This course aims at introducing students to the concept of biopolitics: its origins, and its modern forms in national and increasingly global perspectives. Students will discuss the notion of population and the regulation of the body in contexts of gender, race, ethnicity, and class. We analyze atrocities of violent expulsion, war, and humanitarian aid, as well as health and gender policies as part of conflicts and the neoliberal economy. We will use examples from national policies to international conflict intervention, from anti and pro-natalist policies to thanatology and burial rights, from racialized and gender biased regulations on migration and asylum to intended and unintended side effects of modern humanitarianism. Using some of the theoretical groundwork from social theorists such as Michael Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Silvia Federici, Melinda Cooper, or Didier Fassin the course aims to delineate the interrelation between techniques of the governance of bodies and forms of knowledge strategies to uncover the hidden matrix of political power. The course offers an interdisciplinary approach to old and new forms of power regimes and governance. It incorporates field trips, films, and exhibitions on the topic into the discussion.