5th International Winter School ' The State and the Body: Biopower, Biopolitics, and the Political Regime '
The School of Political Science at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) and the Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu invite undergraduate and graduate students to apply for the Fifth International Winter School The State and the Body: Biopower, Biopolitics, and the Political Regimeto be held in on February 8-14, 2015. The School will be focused onbiopolitical power, as exemplified by regulations for disciplining and constraining human bodies, from anti-gay and anti-abortion laws to food sanctions and Ebola quarantines. Biopolitics is understood along the lines of Michel Foucault as a relatively soft (but rather pervasive) technology of power and governance targeted at such areas as health, sanitation, education, demographic policy, and sexuality. For biopolitics, the human body, including the private life of the individual, is part of political calculations and mechanisms of power.
Throughout the human history, biopolitics was implemented in various eras and in different shapes, from birth control to hygienic policy. Such forms of biopolitics as juvenile justice, laws on smoking, age limitations in the mass media, the cult of healthy body and even noise laws are extensively used by many governments in Western democracies. Yet, as shown by the practices of totalitarian regimes (Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR), in the absence of political pluralism and viable civil society, biopolitics turns into a series of repressive regulations like racial or class hygiene, or the repression of ‘deviant’ sexual practices. In this sense, uses of biopolitics are linked to the nature of the political regime.
Topics to be covered at the School sessions include:
- Theoretical Foundations of Biopolitics
- Historical Uses of Biopower
- Totalitarian Practices of Biopolitical Regulation
- Biopolitical Conservatism and Russia’s ‘Sexual Sovereignty’
- Biopolitics of Migration
- Biopolitics of Sport Mega-Events
- Biopolitics of Global Epidemics
The venue for the School is Kääriku Leisure and Sports Center of the University of Tartu, situated in a beautiful area in Valga County, about 40 km south of Tartu, near the Otepää winter resort. The participants of the School will be provided with comfortable accommodation, full board, free Internet access and numerous sports and outdoor opportunities, including a gym, indoor basketball and volleyball courts, cross-country skis for rent, and will be able to use 150 km of cross country ski tracks, starting right outside the Center.
The working language is English. Participation is equal to 4 ECTS credits, which will be confirmed by a certificate awarded to each student upon successful completion of the School.
Application deadline is December 3, 2014. An application must include the applicant’s full name, institutional affiliation (university, faculty/department, program, year of study) and contact details (Email, phone number).
The School is part of the Escapes from Modernity project.
Contacts: Daria Vdovenko, Project Assistant, +7 (916) 657-3455.