230595 Building Our Own Prisons: Creative Production after Foucault (S) (SoSe 2026)

We will begin this seminar with Michel Foucault´s theorizations on power & the prison (e.g, panopticism, surveillance) and will then proceed to consider their implications and application on a practical level. Students are expected to both come to terms with the theoretical material (selected excerpts from Foucault's texts) and to create texts (in the loosest sense of the word) that are informed by or respond to – in some way – Foucault´s work. While the seminar begins with theoretical input, it has heavily creative focus. Students are encouraged to create the texts we analyse in class - these may include but are not limited to written texts like short stories and scripts, movie stills, drawings, photographs, collage, performance, video productions, etc. The final assignment will test students´ capacity to work with Foucault´s theory and to demonstrate its imports for other disciplines and fields, as well as the capacity to translate between different registers (e.g, between academia & art). Please note that the final grade will not – and cannot – reflect the artistic merits of the creative productions. The major takeaways from this seminar remain within the confines of cultural studies: as does marking. That said, the seminar gives space for creative expression outside the usual research paper. No previous knowledge or experience in any of the above mentioned arts is required.