The Foucault Society, Boston Research Group

A circle of scholars sharing an interest in Foucault's works have been meeting in the Boston area since May of 2008 to discuss and conspire. Spinning off from the "Foucault for the 21st Century" Conference at UMass Boston last year, the group has been meeting informally in a room at Emerson College, across from the Boston Common to share our research interests which variously touch on Foucauldian themes. We have been working as a "research" group as opposed to a "reading" group: our interests primarily are not in covering primary source texts, but in developing our own work on Foucault, and assessing the recent developments in the field of Foucault scholarship. We've had an exciting summer, and look forward to continuing our conversations into the Fall, under our new identity as the official Boston chapter of the New York based Foucault Society. For the Fall semester of 2008, we have two evenings planned:

Sunday, September 28, 6:00-8:00pm
Sam Binkley (Emerson College) will discuss his article: "The Work of Neoliberal Governmentality:Temporality and Ethical Substance in the Tale of Two Dads," (forthcoming in the journal Foucault Studies).

and

Barbara Cruikshank (Umass Amherst) will lead us in a discussion of the contemporary relevance of the recently published "Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979".

Sunday, November 8, 6:00-8:00pm
Edward McGushin (St. Anselm College) will offer a discussion of his recent book: Foucault's Askesis : An Introduction to the Philosophical Life (Northwestern University Press)

...with beer to follow in both cases.

Those interested in joining us should email Sam Binkley (Samuel_Binkley@emerson.edu) for reading materials and other details. Attendance must be indicated in advance as building access is controlled. Meetings are held in the 9th floor conference room, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02130.

Additional information: can be found on these links:
http://pages.emerson.edu/faculty/s/samuel_binkley/07_McGushin.pdf
http://pages.emerson.edu/faculty/s/samuel_binkley/Askesis_Introduction.pdf