This course will provide an in-depth study of Foucault's work and activism with attention to both his analyses of specific problems as well as the innovative methods he developed to address them (e.g., archaeology, discourse analysis, genealogy). His writing focuses on tracing, exposing and resisting the discourses and practices of categorization, exclusion, and control that emerged in Europe beginning in the Medieval period, through the Classical period and into the 19th CE. The course will bring these analyses to bear on contemporary problems.. Possible texts include History of Madness, Birth of the Clinic, Archealogy of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, History of Sexuality, as well as his writings on power, art and literature. This course satisfies the Pre-1800 and Regional Focus core requirements.