AAAS 583B
Bodies, Borders, Belonging
- Institution
- Binghamton University
- Taught
- Fall 2026
Description
This course examines how political power manages life and the mobile practices of bodies. Michel Foucault argues that under sovereign rule the body functioned primarily as a surface upon which law was publicly inscribed – a theatrical medium through which punishment reaffirmed authority. Beginning in the eighteenth century, however, new forms of disciplinary and biopolitical governance emerged that took the living body and population as their central objects. Birth rates and birth control, sexuality, and hygiene became matters of political concern, and bodies were reimagined – and have continued to be reimagined – as objects to be measured, trained, and normalized. Under this logic, certain bodies are placed under heightened scrutiny: those marked by race, gender, sexuality, disability, or class.
This course is particularly concerned with (im)mobility and diasporic bodies. Nation-states are increasingly concerned with differentiating, classifying, and restricting the movement of bodies across national borders. Passports, visas, biometric identification, detention regimes, refugee administration, and deportation practices attest to the ways mobile bodies have become a central site of political control. Some bodies move freely, others conditionally, and others are prohibited from moving at all.
At the intersection of biopolitics, mobility studies, and diaspora studies, the course examines literary, media, and cultural texts as sites where the governance of movement becomes visible, asking how mobility regimes classify bodies and distribute belonging, citizenship, and political life unevenly.
Students will engage closely with foundational theoretical texts alongside literature and media. Assignments include two discussion-leading presentations and a final paper.