Power is operationalized through regulation, standardization and governance. It is codified in law, justified through force, taught in schools, reinforced in the media, and written onto the body. For Max Weber, it is wielded against individuals as domination, while for Michel Foucault it is constituted through knowledge and what society understands as truth. The fascination of political theorists, sociologists, philosophers and historians, it is reproduced in our own writing in our choice of subjects and words, in which histories we unearth, and in whose stories we seek to tell and how.

Our seminar will begin with a look at several foundational texts before taking up questions of institutionalization, remembrance, ways of knowing, categorization, and ethical witnessing through a wide selection of readings, many but not all historical, from different national, subjective, and temporal contexts.