Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0237 - Power: Philosophy Politics Art

What is power? Who or what has it? How is it exercised? Are we ever power-less? If not, what power do we have and how can we exercise it? To understand what power we have, we need to understand the systems and structures that control and shape our actions, thoughts, and capabilities. In this course, we will examine how power and power relations have shifted over time and examine various systems of modern power: sovereign power, disciplinary power, biopower and necropolitics, societies of control, surveillance capitalism, etc. We will try to locate these forms of power in our everyday lives and examine how activists, artists, and others have found ways to resist, subvert, or harness these forms of power. Readings by Foucault, Deleuze, Mbembe, Malik, Preciado, Zuboff, Haraway, Paglen, and others.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Writing and Research In this course, students can generally expect to spend 6 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.