Michel Foucault and his Histories of Sexuality

at the Freie Universität - Berlin
Summer 2024, Proseminar 15433

Michel Foucault is arguably one of the most significant thinkers of the twentieth century and his work continues to exercise extraordinary influence across the humanities and social sciences. First published in 1976, the first volume of The History of Sexuality fundamentally changed how we approach questions of political power, history, sexuality, truth, the subject, and resistance, to name just a few topics. Thirty-four years after his death in 1984, the fourth and final volume of Foucault’s historical study of sexuality was published in French in 2018 and translated into English in 2021. To mark this event and seeming closure of Foucault’s investigations on sexuality, this seminar focuses on a critical close reading of Foucault’s four volume study of the history of sexuality: The Will to Knowledge (vol 1.); The Use of Pleasure (vol. 2); The Care of the Self (vol. 3); Confessions of the Flesh (vol. 4).

In this seminar, we will examine the historical emergence of this thing we call ‘sexuality’ as narrated across Foucault’s works. We will explore why Foucault considered the history of sexuality to be a privileged example through which to elaborate a new conception of power, history of the state, ethics of the self, and new possibilities of theorizing resistance to contemporaneity forms of domination.

“I liked that there were options for the participation in class and in general the lecturer was very welcoming to different positions and situations of the student.”

summer 2024 — Proseminar 15433 Michel Foucault and his Histories of Sexuality

“The professor is extremely helpful and kind whenever a question or problem is raised and happy to respond to any feedback.”

summer 2024 — Proseminar 15433 Michel Foucault and his Histories of Sexuality

“I liked the small conclusions that the teacher provided via e-mail after each session, they helped me very well to prepare the next course.”

summer 2024 — Proseminar 15433 Michel Foucault and his Histories of Sexuality

“Aylon's teaching gave me confidence in and helped me hone my skills in critical analysis.”

summer 2024 — Proseminar 15433 Michel Foucault and his Histories of Sexuality

Political Anatomies
of the Body-Politic

at the Freie Universität - Berlin
Summer 2022, Proseminar 15053

Since the Renaissance, the idea of the “body politic” was used to describe European political communities, but the body politic was not simply a metaphor to speak about the state. It was also a way that monarchs would make sense of and exercise political power. With the democratic revolutions of the 18th century, political power is no longer said to cohere in the single body of the king but in the symbolic category of “The People.” What exactly happened to the body of political power? Do the democratic people have a body? And more broadly, in what ways do bodies, both metaphorically and in their lived flesh, inform how we make sense of and practice politics today?

In this seminar, students will be introduced to historical and contemporary debates on the politics of the body and the body politic in modern democracy. Students will investigate the relationship between this material substance we call the body and the metaphor of the body in the history of western political thought. We will explore how the place of the body in modernity intersects with and is made possible by categories of gender, sexuality, race, and class. Seminar readings will cover historical, radical democratic, feminist, and queer theories that seek to make sense of the political role of bodies in modern liberal democratic society.

“This has been my favorite seminar of my studies at FU so far. The literature was diverse and interesting. I managed to understand the more complex and difficult topics due to interesting discussions in class, framed by the instructor's questions which allowed us students to contextualize and understand the key concepts.”

summer 2022 — Proseminar 15053 Political Anatomies of the Body Politic

“I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the seminar, it felt very open, encouraging and sympathetic, it motivated me to try to be active/think about my opinions/perception of topics.”

summer 2022 — Proseminar 15053 Political Anatomies of the Body Politic

“Die Literatur, die der Professor für diesen Kurs ausgewählt hat, hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Sie zeigt ein breites Spektrum und eine umfassende Studie des Feldes. Er ist ein wirklich guter Dozent und kümmert sich um jeden Aspekt seiner Kurse.”

summer 2022 — Proseminar 15053 Political Anatomies of the Body Politic

Advanced Theories of Gender & Sexuality

at the university of chicago, w/ Prof. Linda Zerilli
Winter 2021 - GNSE 31400

Beginning with the “new social movements” such as feminism and gay liberation, this seminar explores key debates around which gender and sexuality were articulated as tenacious but open structures of power subject to political critique and social transformation. The relatively stable yet dynamic character of “the sex/gender system” raises basic questions of structure and event: (1) how are systemic relations of domination and rule historically constituted and sustained over time?; and (2) how can that which is regularly reproduced be fundamentally altered through both quotidian and extraordinary forms of action? Ongoing heteropatriarchal structures have challenged theorists and activists to forge new frameworks of critique. These frameworks will be examined with an eye to how racialized sexuality and gender are created and contested in the context of modern biopolitical capitalism.

“Lectures and discussions have been mostly fantastic and lively, readings were all excellent.”

winter 2021 — GNSE 31400 Advanced Theories of Gender and Sexuality

“Aylon Cohen was fantastic! Incredibly knowledgable and did a great job both at giving lectures, guiding discussions, and asking thought provoking questions that kept everyone thinking.”

winter 2021 — GNSE 31400 Advanced Theories of Gender and Sexuality

Power, Identity, Resistance

at the university of chicago
Autumn 2019—SOSC 11400

This seminar is the first quarter of a three-quarter sequence in the social sciences. It examines the ways in which power both constitutes and is constituted by economics, politics and culture in the modern era. We look at the different modes by which power is exercised as well as at various means of resisting domination. We also look at the ways in which economic, political and cultural forces interact to shape our identities. Through exposure to canonical texts, this seminar will provide you with tools for thinking through social problems and will enhance your argumentative skills. More broadly, it will help you develop your capacity for critical reasoning and writing.

“Attending the lectures and our discussions made my outlooks on the readings change drastically and i felt like i gained a lot from them in terms of my understanding!”

autumn 2019—SOSC 11400 Power, Identity, Resistance I

“[Aylon] organized discussions so that a point was always reached, and we always learned something, without being too leading.”

autumn 2019—SOSC 11400 Power, Identity, Resistance I