This course introduces students to interdisciplinary social scientific scholarship of bodies, affect and society. We
explore how bodily materiality is shaped by societal norms and practices and is also active and indispensable for
modes of desiring, disidentification, refusal and acting otherwise. The course will examine modalities of bio- and
necropolitics and focus on alternative approaches to a pervasive body-mind divide through examining the mutual
constitution of reason and emotion, body and society, flesh and signification. How are bodies sexed, gendered
and racialised? What are methods to research and represent bodies and affects, including what might be
unavailable to verbalisation? Inspired by the method of memory work, students will also experiment with creative writing
from the body.
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
This course introduces students to interdisciplinary social scientific scholarship of bodies, affect and society. We
explore how bodily materiality is shaped by societal norms and practices and is active and indispensable for
modes of disidentification, refusal and acting otherwise. The course will examine modalities of bio- and
necropolitics and focus on alternative approaches to a pervasive body-mind divide through examining the mutual
constitution of reason and emotion, body and society, flesh and signification. How are bodies sexed, gendered
and racialised? What are methods to research and represent bodies and affects, including what might be
unavailable to verbalisation? Inspired by the method of memory work, students will also experiment with writing
from the body.
Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (11.06.2024)
Aim of the course -
1. to develop a critical appreciation of bodies as relational, active, open, material and discursive
2. to understand and apply different conceptual approaches to the body (e.g. post-structuralist, phenomenological, new materialist)
3. to attune your bodily sensorium to smells, sounds, movements and fleeting gestures and what they tell about the social
4. to experiment with creative writing of the body and what affects can do
6. to foster teamwork, collaboration and constructive criticism
Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (11.06.2024)
1. to develop a critical appreciation of bodies as relational, active, open, material and discursive
2. to understand and apply different conceptual approaches to the body (e.g. post-structuralist, phenomenological, new materialist)
3. to attune your bodily sensorium to smells, sounds, movements and fleeting gestures and what they tell about the social
4. to experiment with creative writing of the body and what affects can do
6. to foster teamwork, collaboration and constructive criticism
Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (11.06.2024)
Course completion requirements -
this course is designed for advanced BA students.
Assessment will be continuous and includes individual and group work through the semester. Instead of a final exam students will write a final paper, individually or in pairs.
Individual work:
Ø Active participation in weekly class discussions: 25 %
Ø Creative writing paper/memory work (700 words): 20%
Group work (in small groups of 2-4 students)
Ø Group Presentation on the creative writing in relation to a concept from the course: 20%
Ø Final paper: on a course topic of your choice, drawing on further readings and at least two main readings (1800 words individually or 3000 words in pairs): 35%
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
this course is designed for advanced BA students.
Assessment will be continuous and includes individual and group work through the semester. Instead of a final exam students will write a final paper, individually or in pairs.
Individual work:
Ø Active participation in weekly class discussions: 25 %
Ø Creative writing paper/memory work (700 words): 20%
Group work (in small groups of 2-4 students)
Ø Group Presentation on the creative writing in relation to a concept from the course: 20%
Ø Final paper: on a course topic of your choice, drawing on further readings and at least two main readings (1800 words individually or 3500 words in pairs): 35%
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
Teaching methods -
This course will be divided between short introductions and a discussion of weekly required readings, including class excercises like concept speed dating. students will receive written feedback from teh course tutor on their writing.
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
This course will be divided between short introductions and a discussion of weekly required readings, including class excercises like concept speed dating. students will receive written feedback from teh course tutor on their writing.
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
Syllabus -
A full course syllabus will be distributed in the first week of class.
1. Embodiment and disidentification 2. Body performativity 3. Somatechnics, body assemblages, body-environments 4. Affect and the sociality of pain 5. Biopolitics and slow death 6. Chemical infrastructures and the politics of breathing 7. Eating bodies 8. Bodily transformations 9. Sounds and sentiment: Sighing, laughing, crying 10. Dying and hospice-tality
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
A full course syllabus will be distributed in the first week of class.
1. Embodiment and disidentification 2. Body performativity 3. Somatechnics, body assemblages, body-environments 4. Affect and the sociality of pain 5. Biopolitics and slow death 6. Chemical infrastructures and the politics of breathing 7. Eating bodies 8. Bodily transformations 9. Sounds and sentiment: Sighing, laughing, crying 10. Dying and hospice-tality
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
Learning resources -
Ahmed, Sara (2014 [2004]) The Cultural Politics of Emotions, second edition, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Butler, Judith (1999 [1990]) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Perversion of Identity, second edition, New York: Routledge.
Gunaratnam, Yasmin (2013) Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders and Care, London: Bloomsbury.
Hird, Myra (2004) Sex, Gender and Science, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Munoz, Jose E. (1999) Disidentifications: Queers of Colour and Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Scarry, Elaine (1985) The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Skeggs, Beverly (1997) Formations of Class and Gender, London: Sage.
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
Ahmed, Sara (2014 [2004]) The Cultural Politics of Emotions, second edition, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Butler, Judith (1999 [1990]) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Perversion of Identity, second edition, New York: Routledge.
Gunaratnam, Yasmin (2013) Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders and Care, London: Bloomsbury.
Hird, Myra (2004) Sex, Gender and Science, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Munoz, Jose E. (1999) Disidentifications: Queers of Colour and Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Skeggs, Beverly (1997) Formations of Class and Gender, London: Sage.
Last update: Lorenz-Meyer Dagmar Regine, M.A., Ph.D. (17.09.2024)
