Projects & Archive

2022-23: This year we are focusing on genealogies of 'Education':

  • Fall Qtr 2022: Foucault, selected writings on the examination, 1971-1975
  • Winter Qtr 2023: Selections from Stephen Jay Gould, Catherine Malabou, John Rury & Derrick Darby, and others
  • Spring Qtr 2023: TBD

2021-22: This year we are exploring multiple research spaces in 'Contemporary Genealogies':

  • Fall Qtr 2021: Pragmatic Genealogy (Queloz, Srinivasan, &c.) // Technology (via Deleuze, Guattari, &c.)
  • Winter Qtr 2022: The Queer Archive // Foucauldian and Kantian Critique
  • Spring Qtr 2022: Postcolonial and Genealogical Critique // Genealogy and Teleology
2020-21: This year we will be focusing on genealogies of 'Medicine and Medical Concepts'
  • Fall Qtr 2020: Foucault's 1963 The Birth of the Clinic in full
  • Winter Qtr 2021: selections on the history of medicine in connection to Foucault (Rabinow, Rose, etc.)
  • Spring Qtr 2021: more selections on the history of medicine (Delaporte, Canguilhem, returning to Foucault 1984, Foucault 1974, Foucault 1963).
2019-20: This year we will be doing genealogical inquiry on 'Medical Records'
  • Fall Qtr 2019: Readings from Foucault's 1974 Rio lectures on 'social medicine'; to be followed by surveying extent historiography on the history of medical records
  • Winter Qtr 2020: Original source research on medical insurance records
  • Spring Qtr 2020: Original source research on medical insurance records
2018-19: Our focus will be 'Truth'
  • Fall Qtr 2018: Readings from Foucault's 1981 lectures, Subjectivity and Truth (at College de France) and Wrong-Doing, Truth-Telling (Louvain)
  • Winter Qtr 2019: Bernard Williams, Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy
  • Spring Qtr 2019: CGC met as part of a graduate course on Genealogical Political Theory and Realist Political Theory
2017-18: Our focus will be 'Foucault in Collaboration'
  • Fall Qtr 2017: The group will meet as part of Nicolae Morar's seminar on 'Deleuze and Foucault'.
  • Winter Qtr 2018: The group will discuss some of Foucault's collaborative work and work by his collaborators, including: the newly-translated Disorderly Families project co-authored between Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault; as well as related contemporary projects by both Foucault and Farge.
  • Spring Qtr 2018: Collaboratory Workshop (members presenting their draft papers)
2016-17: This year we will be doing genealogical inquiry on 'Documentary Identity'
  • Fall Qtr 2016: U.S. Birth Certificate standardization research collaboration
  • Wtr Qtr 2017: U.S. Birth Certificate standardization collaborative co-authoring project
  • Spr Qtr 2017: CGC will meet as part of Dr. Colin Koopman's 'Data Genealogy & Media Archaeology' graduate course
2015-16: Focus on methods: 'How to Do Genealogical History'
  • Fall Qtr 2015: Foucault's Discipline and Punish
  • Wtr Qtr 2016: CGC met as part of Dr. Colin Koopman's 'Genealogy Workshop' graduate course
  • Spr Qtr 2016: readings in historiography among Foucault's French interlocutors (G. Deleuze, B. Latour, and P. Veyne)
2014-15: Our thematic focus will be 'Beyond Biopolitics'
  • Fall Qtr 2014: CGC met as part of Dr. Nicolae Morar's graduate course 'Biopolitics: Michel Foucault and Beyond'
  • Wtr Qtr 2015: readings in contemporary theory pressing beyond biopolitics
  • Spr Qtr 2015: Collaboratory Workshop (for design inspiration see Rabinow & Stavrianakis, Demands of the Day, 13ff.)
2013-14: Our focus this year will be methodological rather than thematic with an eye on 'Historiographies of Discourse and Practice'.
  • Fall Qtr 2013: Foucault's methodological & historical writings from the late 60s to early 70s
  • Wtr Qtr 2014: Foucault's Lectures on the Will to Know (CdF 1971) in entirety
  • Spr Qtr 2014: Collaboratory Workshop 
2012-13: Our thematic focus for the year will be 'Biopolitics'.
  • Fall Qtr 2012: Foucault's The Will to Know (i.e., History of Sexuality, volume 1)
  • Wtr Qtr 2013: contemporary genealogies, archaeologies, and studies of biopolitics and biopower
  • Spr Qtr 2013: Ian Hacking's The Taming of Chance
2011-12: Our thematic focus for the year will be 'The Self'.
  • Fall Qtr 2011: readings by Foucault and selected figures in critical theory (esp. Habermas and Honneth); readings include Foucault's "Technologies of the Self" lecture and selections from Foucault's 1984 course lectures at the College de France (The Courage of Truth)
  • Wtr Qtr 2012: Amy Allen's The Politics of Our Selves in preparation for Prof. Allen's visit to UO in late Feb..
  • Spring Qtr 2012: a selection of readings by Asad, Adkins, Bifo, Heyes, Hacking, Damasio, and others on contemporary subjectivities and selves.
2010-11: Our thematic focus will be 'Liberalism'.
  • Fall Quarter 2010: We read The Birth of Biopolitics in entirety.
  • Winter Quarter 2011: Work by contemporary theorists conducting inquiries into the history and presence of liberalism using genealogical and archaeological methods: pieces by Paul Patton, Stephen Collier, Paul Rabinow, Todd May, Ladelle McWhorter, and Andrew Dilts.
  • Spring Quarter 2011: Workshop meetings focusing on papers by the following group members: Colin Koopman (workshop papers forthcoming in book), Thomas Nail (workshop paper published), George Fourlas, Vernon Carter, Gregory Liggett, Katherine Logan (workshop paper published), Ed Madison (workshop paper published), and Nicolae Morar (workshop paper forthcoming).
2009-10. This year 'Foucault Across the Disciplines' shifted venues to The University of Oregon.
  • Fall Quarter 2009:  Reading of The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 in entirety.
  • Winter 2010: Readings from Security, Territory, Population
  • Spring 2010: Foucault's ethics, reading selections from volume 1 of the white-cover Essential Works collection (ed. Rabinow).
  • Summer 2010 Project: This summer the 'Foucault Across the Disciplines' group became the Critical Genealogies Collaboratory. We shifted from a primary focus on group readings of Foucault's work to the development of a shared research venue for undertaking critical genealogical inquiries of our own under the methodological inspiration of the writings of Foucault and others. An inspiration for our experiment in collaboratory-ing is the work of Paul Rabinow. We will adopt thematic areas of focus for a year at a time. Our thematic focus in Summer of 2010 as a trial for this format will be 'The Family' and will include Foucault's writings on family, Ellen Feder's Family Bonds, and selections on methodology from Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge.
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2008-09 at UCSC
  • This year we met only periodically, focusing on Ian Hacking's Foucault-inspired work on 'making up people' and related ideas including indifferent versus interactive kinds.
  • January 2009 Conference: At UCSC we organized the 'Ars Synthetica: Anthropology of the Contemporary' conference (Jan 2009).
2007-08 at UCSC
  • Fall 2007 Readings: This quarter we focused on relations between the work of Ian Hacking and Michel Foucault, in anticipation of Prof. Hacking's planned visit to UCSC during the Winter 08 quarter.
  • Winter 2008 Readings: Readings from Security, Territory, Population. 
  • Spring 2008 'Foucault for Inquiry' Project: This quarter we met periodically throughout the quarter to present and discuss various research projects in which we were putting Foucault's concepts, methods, and arguments to use in the context of a range of different research contexts.
  • Mar 2008 Conference: At the University of California, Santa Cruz we organized the 'Foucault Across the Disciplines' conference (Mar 2008).  This has since been collected as a special issue of History of the Human Sciences.
2006-07 at UCSC
  • Winter 2007 Readings: Founded as the Foucault Across the Disciplines Research Cluster at The University of California, Santa Cruz. Our first quarter involved reading selections from Foucault's essays, lectures, and interviews that span from his middle work on power and discipline to his late work on ethics, subjectivity, and freedom: "The Subject and Power," "Governmentality," "Omnes et Singulatim," "What is Enlightenment?," and "The Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom".
  • Spring 2007 Readings: Foucault's later works on ethics, subjectivity, and sexuality; essays and selections from the course lectures.