CHID 250 B: Special Topics: Introduction to the History of Ideas

Description: This course introduces students to theories of power over life itself—what contemporary thinkers often call “biopower.” It pays special attention to criminalization as a form of biopower and explores how discourses of the “criminal” produce and pathologize racial and sexual difference, marking some people as “deviant” and therefore subject to premature death. The course traces a genealogy of the theory of biopower in conjunction with readings of literary and cultural texts. Emphasis will be placed on developing theoretical understanding in and through the examination of particular historical moments across a range of periods and geographies. Assignments include several short papers and a final project.

I&S and VLPA credit