Dr Claudia Stein

The formation of the modern and postmodern subject since the seventeenth century at the intersection of science and medicine, politics and economy. The role of biopower or biopolitics, as understood by Michel Foucault as the processes by which 'life' emerges as the center of political strategies. The Birth of Biopower in 18th-Century Germany, investigating the slow unfolding of a multitude of biopower/biopolitical strategies and technologies since the late seventeenth century in the German-speaking lands. Biopolitical projects in the Electorate of Bavaria, targeting the re-organization of country's reproductive and military medicine, the draining and cultivation of large areas of fenland for colonisation and agricultural production, the experimentation with and introduction of new agricultural technologies and products, and large-scale nutritional experimentation with new food stuff (notably the potato). The history of biopower, visual and material culture, and its relationship to socioeconomic rights. The rise of modern liberal governmental practices, forms of capitalism and the rise of modern science and medicine. History and strategy of medicine, biopower and its relationship to socioeconomic rights.