Confessions of the Flesh: Michel Foucault’s Final Volume of "The History of Sexuality" -- Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History

Date and Time

December 5, 2019
09:00AM - 06:00PM EST

Location

Lower Level Conference Room, Adolphus Busch Hall, 27 Kirkland Street at Cabot Way Cambridge, MA 02138

foucault les aveux de la chair
In February 2018, the fourth and final volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality project—Confessions of the Flesh—was published for the first time in French by Éditions Gallimard. This is an extraordinary publishing event since the book was not supposed to have been printed at all.

This one-day conference will assess the reception and impact of this missing volume of Foucault’s History of Sexuality. It will highlight the text of Confessions of the Flesh, its place in Foucault’s oeuvre, the context in which he wrote, and the contemporary relevance of this new work. It is far enough away from the Foucault-overload of past decades that it is now possible to freshly examine the enduring value of this influential thinker—a re-examination inspired by the belated publication of his final book.

 

Schedule

Welcome Remarks | 9:00 am-9:15 am
Annabel Kim ( Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University)
Julian Bourg (History Department, Boston College)

Panel 1 | 9:15 am-10:45 am
Confessions of the Flesh and Foucault’s Oeuvre
Bernard Harcourt (Law and Political Science, Columbia; EHHSS, Paris)
Manon Garcia (Society of Fellows, Harvard University)
Comment: Annabel Kim

Panel 2 | 10:45 am-12:15 pm
The Christian Optic
James Bernauer, S.J. (Philosophy, Boston College)
Agustín Colombo (Postdoctoral Researcher, Boston College)
Comment: Edward McGushin

Lunch (for participants only) | 12:15 pm-1:30 pm

Panel 3 | 1:30 pm-3:00 pm
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Mark D. Jordan (Divinity School, Harvard University)
Lynne Huffer (Department of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Emory University)
Comment: Durba Mitra (Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University)

Coffee break | 3:00 pm-3:30 pm

Panel 4 | 3:30 pm-5:00 pm
Foucault After the Confessions
Rey Chow (Literature, Duke University) and Austin Sarfan (Literature, Duke University)
Comment: Julian Bourg

This event is sponsored by the Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History; European Politics Seminar; Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, Harvard University; Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; Department of Philosophy, Harvard University; Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University; and with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

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