Calendar

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). Please RSVP at [list from Sundial, CU event listing place]. 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.

Event locations vary — please see event location for each seminar. The Columbia Maison Française is located on the Columbia campus in Buell Hall next to Low Library. The Heyman Center Common Room is located in the Heyman Center (in East Campus) on the second floor. The Hispanic Institute for Latin American and Iberian Cultures (Casa Hispanica) is located at 612 West 116^th Street. A campus map of Columbia University is here.

Seminar Series Schedule:  Foucault 13/13

Monday, September 14, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

Lessons on the Will to Know (1970-1971)

James Faubion, Rice University

and Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota

Maison Française

***

Monday, September 28, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

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

***

Monday, October 12, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

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

***

Monday, October 26, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

Psychiatric Power (1973-1974)

Linda Zerilli, University of Chicago,

Anna Lvovsky, Columbia University, and

Alondra Nelson, Columbia University

Heyman Center Common Room

***

Monday, November 16, 2015, 7:00 to 9:00pm

Abnormal (1974-1975)

Veena Das, Johns Hopkins University,

Pierre Rosanvallon, Collège de France, Paris, and

Emmanuelle Saada, Columbia University

Maison Française

***

Monday, November 23, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

“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

***

Monday, December 7, 2015, 6:15 to 8:45pm

Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978)

Seyla Benhabib, Yale University,

Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University, and

Adam Tooze, Columbia University

Maison Française

***

Thursday, January 28, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-1979)

Nancy Fraser, The New School

and Kendall Thomas, Columbia University

Heyman Center Common Room

***

Thursday, February 11, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

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

***

Thursday, February 25, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

Subjectivity and Truth (1980-1981)

Judith Butler, University of California Berkeley,

Katherine Franke, Columbia University, and

Stathis Gourgouris, Columbia University

Maison Française

***

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

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

***

Thursday, March 31, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

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

***

Thursday, April 14, 2016, 6:15 to 8:45pm

The Courage of Truth (1983-1984)

Frederic Gros, Sciences Po,

Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University, and

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University

Casa Hispánica

***

All sessions moderated by Bernard E. Harcourt and Jesús R. Velasco

The Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion presents:  A Fine-Tuning Extravaganza (with Luke Barnes, Barry Loewer, Tim Maudlin, Hans Halvorson, and Alex Pruss).

1.  Monday, February 20th, 7pm, Luke Barnes, an astrophysicist from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy and co-author of “A Fortunate Universe”, will give a general-audience talk on the scientific side of fine-tuning.  The talk will be at Hageman Hall, the large meeting room on the first floor of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary (corner of College Ave. and Seminary Place, right in the middle of the College Ave. campus).  Luke is an engaging speaker and a respected scientist — this will be an excellent introduction to all the kinds of phenomena that are typically used in fine-tuning design arguments.

2. Tuesday, February 21st, 1pm-5pm, a Round-Table on Design Arguments, with remarks from Luke Barnes (Sydney), Barry Loewer (Rutgers), Hans Halvorson (Princeton), and comments from Tim Maudlin (NYU) and Alex Pruss (Baylor).  This will be an open-ended exchange of ideas on the prospects and problems for using the “fine-tuning of the cosmos for life” (or for something) in arguments for a designer, or for a multiverse, or for… other things.  The event will take place in the large lecture hall on the top floor of the Alexander Library on College Ave — NOT in the philosophy seminar room!

Both events are free and open to the public.

The Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion presents:  A Fine-Tuning Extravaganza (with Luke Barnes, Barry Loewer, Tim Maudlin, Hans Halvorson, and Alex Pruss).

1.  Monday, February 20th, 7pm, Luke Barnes, an astrophysicist from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy and co-author of “A Fortunate Universe”, will give a general-audience talk on the scientific side of fine-tuning.  The talk will be at Hageman Hall, the large meeting room on the first floor of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary (corner of College Ave. and Seminary Place, right in the middle of the College Ave. campus).  Luke is an engaging speaker and a respected scientist — this will be an excellent introduction to all the kinds of phenomena that are typically used in fine-tuning design arguments.

2. Tuesday, February 21st, 1pm-5pm, a Round-Table on Design Arguments, with remarks from Luke Barnes (Sydney), Barry Loewer (Rutgers), Hans Halvorson (Princeton), and comments from Tim Maudlin (NYU) and Alex Pruss (Baylor).  This will be an open-ended exchange of ideas on the prospects and problems for using the “fine-tuning of the cosmos for life” (or for something) in arguments for a designer, or for a multiverse, or for… other things.  The event will take place in the large lecture hall on the top floor of the Alexander Library on College Ave — NOT in the philosophy seminar room!

Both events are free and open to the public.

A talk by Anne Simon, moderated by Eliza Zingesser

Zoopoetics aims to highlight the plurality of stylistic, linguistic and narrative tools used by writers to express the plurality of animal activities, affects and worlds, as well as the intricacies of the interactions between humans and animals. Such an approach helps to understand that all life forms are in a relationship of dependence with an archè (Husserl)—an origin, a reason, a refuge, a dwelling, the Earth— and that animals are more stylistic or rhetorical beings than we usually think of them as being. Evolution and biomorphic logics allow us to intuitively understand other species related to us, to share many of their emotions and expressions, and to be able to account for them through specific human means, such as evocative and figurative language. The lecture will show that perspectivism, metamorphosis and hybridity are universal patterns and experiences that literature embodies in different ways.

Anne Simon is a Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Française and a Member of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), where she leads the Project « Animots » ; an author of Trafics de Proust, 2016 and La rumeur des distances traversées, to be published in 2018. Her research focuses on disturbing relationships between philosophy and literature, and on zoopoetics.

The Department’s colloquium series typically meets on Thursdays in the Seminar Room at Gateway Bldg, 106 Somerset Street, 5th Floor at 3:00 p.m. Please see the Department Calendar or scheduled speakers and more details.

Fall 2017

• 10/19/17 Break It Down For Me Lecture Series: Alex Guerrero
• 10/30/17 Inaugural Rutgers Lecture: Sir Richard Sorabji, Alexander Library Teleconference Lecture Hall, Room 403, CAC 3:00-8:00pm
• 11/2/17 Inaugural Rutgers Lecture: Sir Richard Sorabji, Alexander Library Teleconference Lecture Hall, 3:00-8:00 pm
• 11/3/17 Inaugural Rutgers Lecture: Sir Richard Sorabji, 3:00-5:00pm
• 11/6/17 Dr. Daniel DeHaan (https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/directory/dehaan) – “Souls and Contemporary Neuroscience: the Possibility of Reconciliation,” 7:30pm
• 11/9/17 Break It Down For Me Lecture Series: Jeff King
• 11/16/17 Prof. Jenann Ismael (University of Arizona), 3:00-5:00 pm
• 11/30/17 Dr. Eleonore Stump (https://sites.google.com/site/stumpep/) – “Aquinas on the Atonement”, 7:30 pm
• 12/15-12/16/17 Parfit Memorial Conference, Theological Seminary, Hageman Hall, 9:30 am-5:00 pm