Biopolitics

Foucault’s concept of biopolitics transformed how anthropologists understand power, agency, modernity, and, more broadly, life itself. As a theoretical tool, it has informed a range of contemporary social science—from intersectional research on reproductive health to theories of the postcolonial state to ethnographies on consumerism. This course will introduce graduate students to the core components and theoretical lineages of biopolitics, and recent ethnographic and archival work that builds on and challenges Foucault’s seminal texts. We will highlight the work of Black, indigenous, women, and queer scholars who have sharpened our discipline’s apprehension of biopolitics through intersectional, postcolonial, and anti-racist perspectives.