ICI Associate Member Hania Siebenpfeiffer will lead a two-day seminar on ‘Michel Foucault & Giorgio Agamben: Biopolitik und “nacktes Leben”‘ @ Helle Panke, 27-28 January 2018.
In modern times, physical life becomes the object of state-administered biopolitics, which, as biopower, no longer rules over a territory but over the bodies of its subjects. Extending Foucault’s concept of modern biopolitics, Agamben understands biopower as sovereign rule over the bare life of the individual, which at any point can be turned into a homo sacer, whose paradigmatic place is Auschwitz, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. For Agamben, this situation, called an exception, is but the visible expression of present normalities, hence the camp a cipher of modern domination.
After a short introduction, the seminar will cover Agamben’s homo sacer, its current political implications and critiques. The second day focuses on Foucault’s biopolitics and biopower.
In German. For further information, registration, and text selections: Helle Panke.
