The Birth of Biopolitics. Studygroup with prof. Todd May, USA

We will again have an online study group for persons interested in the development of and the consequences of the neoliberal society.

We will meet nine Wednesday afternoons at 4.30-6.00 pm. Todd will give a lecture at about one hour. Then we will meet in smaller conversation groups and the last part will consist of questions and comments to the text. We will go through the last nine chapters in Michael Foucault’s book The Birth of Biopolitics.

Todd May is writing this about the upcoming study group:
This year’s reading group will be on Michel Foucault’s lectures The Birth of Biopolitics.  In these lectures, Foucault offers an extraordinarily influential analysis of the emergence of neoliberalism, a framework that we are still living with. He discusses how the idea of thinking of ourselves as fundamentally economic beings emerged over the course of the 20th century and how neoliberal policies developed alongside that thinking. This analysis extends Michael White’s view of Foucault, bringing it into the contemporary context.  We will read nine of the book’s twelve lectures, one a month, starting in September.

About Todd May:
Todd May, professor in philosophy at Warren Wilson College i North Carolina, USA, is a dear friend of DISPUK and has been our guest lecturer since 2010. Todd teaches lively and engaged in easy-to-understand English and with great understanding, that we must be helped along the way to translate key passages and concepts into Danish.