CALL FOR PAPERS
Fifth Annual SOCIAL THEORY FORUM
April 16 and 17, 2008, University of Massachusetts Boston
A Foucault for the 21st Century:
Governmentality,
Biopolitics and Discipline in the New Millennium
Keynote Speakers Include:
James Bernauer (Boston College)
Charles Lemert (Wesleyan University)
Barbara Cruikshank (UMASS Amherst)
Margaret McLaren (Rollins College)
How relevant is Foucault's social
thought
to the world we inhabit today?
Foucault is best remembered for his historical
inquiries into the origins of "disciplinary" society in a period extending
from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Today, however, under the conditions of
global modernity, the relevance of his work has been called into question.
With the increasing ubiquity of markets, the break up of centralized states
and the dissolution of national boundaries, the world today seems far removed
from the bounded, disciplinary societies Foucault described in his most
famous books. Far from disciplinary, society today is "post
panoptic," as Nancy Fraser has argued--in a move which seems to confirm
Jean Baudrillard's demand that we "forget Foucault."
Yet in recent years, it has become apparent that
Foucault's thoughts on modern society have not been exhausted, and, indeed,
that much remains to be explored. While ripples from his initial impact on
English speaking scholarship are still evident in such areas as the study of
discourse, sexuality, the body and institutions, it is undeniably the case
that new threads of Foucauldian influence have also become available. For
example, his reflections on "governmentality" have by now garnered
a rich scholarly focus on the conditions of personal life under the economic
liberalism. His work on "biopower" has opened new terrain for
political and activist discourse on globalization and population. His accounts
of panopticism and surveillance have proven relevant to the study of
contemporary policing practices in a post 9/11 world. Indeed, it could be
argued that, in the new millennium, new threads of Foucauldian thought have
emerged, enabling richer understandings of power and subjectivity under
uniquely contemporary conditions.
The
conference will feature both invited and submitted papers and presentations,
as well as audiovisual materials. Please send a one-page abstract or proposal
as email attachment (MS Word Format) to SocialTheoryProposal@ideologiesofwar.com
by December 18, 2007.
The aim of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Social
Theory Forum, to be held on April 16-17, 2008, at the University of
Massachusetts Boston, is to weigh in on the relevance of Foucault's ideas in
the context of a new millennium, and to reassess Foucault's contributions to
contemporary social theory in light of these developments. We invite papers
from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective, addressing the
contemporary application of Foucault to contemporary social life and social
theory. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Governmentality and
Neo-liberalism
- Political Spirituality and
Contemporary Religious Movements
- Biopolitics, Globalization and
Populations
- Race, Genetics and the Politics
of Life
- Ethics, Biopower and the
Politics of Consumption
- Panopticism and Surveillance in
a Post 9/11 World
- Governmentality, Biopower and
the Politics of Risk
- Subpolitics, Life Politics and
New Social Movements
- Foucault and the Left in a
Global Context
- Foucault and the
Penal-Industrial Complex
- Ethics, Identity and
Individualization
- Genealogy
- Feminism
The
conference will feature both invited and submitted papers and presentations,
as well as audiovisual materials. Please send a one-page abstract or proposal
as email attachment (MS Word Format) to SocialTheoryProposal@ideologiesofwar.com
by December 18, 2007.
Proceedings of the conference will be
peer-reviewed by anonymous referees for possible publication in a special
issue of The Discourse of Sociological Practice, the printed and online journal
of the Department of Sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston.
Co-organizers
JORGE CAPETILLO-PONCE (contact for
inquiries): Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts
Boston
GLENN JACOBS, Associate Professor of Sociology,
University of Massachusetts Boston; SIAMAK MOVAHEDI, Professor of Sociology,
University of Massachusetts Boston; SAMUEL BINKLEY, Assistant Professor of
Sociology, Emerson College.