Hi all
My name is Eleanor, and I'm currently writing my honours thesis in
sociology at the University of Sydney. In my thesis I'm looking at
political discourse around 'values education' in Australian public
schools, which has been quite a prominent theme since the Prime
Minister claimed Australian public schools are 'values neutral', too
politically correct and 'antiseptic' in their unwillingness to
preference 'traditional Australian values and beliefs' above other
value and belief systems. This is comprable to discourse in the US
around 'character education', and perhaps as a more specific example,
the banning of headscarves in French schools.
I'm using Society Must Be Defended as a key text, along with
Power/Knowledge, Discipline and Punish etc, and by situating this
educational discourse within the broader Australian political
landscape (with particular reference to the treatment of asylum
seekers, the camps etc), looking at the 'dovetailing' of disciplinary
and regulatory technologies of power, State Racism, and perhaps touch
on that 'strange continuum' between democracy and totalitarianism.
I've only come to Foucault recently (after an undergrad focussed more
on anticapitalist activism and moments of Marxist orthodoxy than
academic engagement), and am constantly delighted, the more I read, by
the passion and sense of urgency in Foucault for the need for radical
analysis, strategy and change. I'm also constantly perplexed, the more
secondary material I read, by the wildly varying ways in which he is
read. So I thought I would peek into a list and try to get a sense of
some the debates.
And lastly, I have to thank Mark Kelly for his article on SMBD in
contretemps, which was significant in sparking my initial interest in
pursuing Foucault in my thesis..so hi, and thanks :)
Eleanor Brand
My name is Eleanor, and I'm currently writing my honours thesis in
sociology at the University of Sydney. In my thesis I'm looking at
political discourse around 'values education' in Australian public
schools, which has been quite a prominent theme since the Prime
Minister claimed Australian public schools are 'values neutral', too
politically correct and 'antiseptic' in their unwillingness to
preference 'traditional Australian values and beliefs' above other
value and belief systems. This is comprable to discourse in the US
around 'character education', and perhaps as a more specific example,
the banning of headscarves in French schools.
I'm using Society Must Be Defended as a key text, along with
Power/Knowledge, Discipline and Punish etc, and by situating this
educational discourse within the broader Australian political
landscape (with particular reference to the treatment of asylum
seekers, the camps etc), looking at the 'dovetailing' of disciplinary
and regulatory technologies of power, State Racism, and perhaps touch
on that 'strange continuum' between democracy and totalitarianism.
I've only come to Foucault recently (after an undergrad focussed more
on anticapitalist activism and moments of Marxist orthodoxy than
academic engagement), and am constantly delighted, the more I read, by
the passion and sense of urgency in Foucault for the need for radical
analysis, strategy and change. I'm also constantly perplexed, the more
secondary material I read, by the wildly varying ways in which he is
read. So I thought I would peek into a list and try to get a sense of
some the debates.
And lastly, I have to thank Mark Kelly for his article on SMBD in
contretemps, which was significant in sparking my initial interest in
pursuing Foucault in my thesis..so hi, and thanks :)
Eleanor Brand