Other News

Dr Trevor McCrisken, Associate Professor in US Politics, appeared on the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Breakfast Show with Trish Adudu, on Friday 13th January, discussing President-elect Donald Trump.

You can listen to Trevor's appearence below:

Dr Gabriel Siles-Brügge recently appeared on talkRADIO to discuss the mooted UK-US trade deal post-Brexit.

You can listen here (from 17:10-): http://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1484064000#

Dr Gabriel Siles-Brügge's book with Polity on the proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or TTIP) is available to purchase here.

We are delighted to announce the panel for next week’s Students’ Question Time event which takes place on Monday 16 January from 6.15-7.45pm in MS.01. Following on from the Question Time event back in October, this event will continue to focus on the issues surrounding Brexit but from a students’ perspective. There will be lots of great debate and some excellent questions.

• Felix Ling – Third year Politics student

• Sophie Worrall – Second year PAIS student

• Oran Creedon – First year EPAIS student

• Thomas Soud – First year PPE student

• Gerardo Martinez – Third year Economics student

The panel will be chaired by Dr Tatiana Coutto.

You can find out more about each panellist on the SQT panel page.

If you haven’t yet registered for your place in the audience please book now.

Professor Franklyn Lisk is to speak at a Royal African Society and British Council event, Africa in 2017: Prospects & Forecasts, at Birmingham University next Monday, 16th January.

Date & Time: Monday 16 January, 18:30 - 20:30, followed by a reception

Venue: Main Lecture Theatre, C-Block, Aston Webb Building, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT

Following a year that’s delivered major surprises in Africa and globally, what does 2017 hold for the African continent? Will it be a year of crises or triumphs?

In terms of elections, 2016 witnessed several major votes on the continent that mostly returned incumbent leaders to power; Ghana, which saw another transition of power, proved to be one of very few exceptions in a pattern that saw sitting presidents in the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Gabon, Zambia, Niger and more all re-elected.

Beyond Africa, the UK’s vote to leave the European Union and the US election delivered further political shocks. What impact will these landmark events and uncertainty in the global system mean for Africa? What can we expect from elections scheduled for 2017 in the likes of Angola, Rwanda, Liberia and Kenya?

Economically, the fall in commodity prices continued to hit major economies, in particular Nigeria, while South Africa, again the continent’s largest economy, remains mired in political turmoil and seems unable to tackle declining economic output and rising unemployment. What impact will commodity prices, an uncertain global economic outlook, and China's continued slowdown have on Africa?

Across the continent, vibrant political and social movements emerged, largely driven by Africa’s rising young populations. This demographic also makes up the majority of migrants leaving the continent as well as much of the force behind Africa’s rising prominence in global cultural production in fields as diverse as film, art and music. How are these creative sectors growing and innovating? What impact will these social, cultural and political movements have in 2017?

Speakers: Dr Njoki Ngumi (The Nest Collective, Nairobi, Kenya); Professor Nic Cheeseman (International Development Department, University of Birmingham); Professor Franklyn Lisk (Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, University of Warwick) & Eliza Anyangwe (Writer & Founder of The Nzinga Effect)

Presented by the British Council and the Royal African Society in partnership with the Department of African Studies and Anthropology and the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham.

Stuart Elden's book Foucault: The Birth of Power has just been published by Polity Press. This book is a prequel to Foucault's Last Decade which was published last year.

In 1969 Foucault published The Archaeology of Knowledge, a theoretical and methodological treatise which summarised the work he had been doing throughout the 1960s. Six years later he published Discipline and Punish, a politically-charged work of history. This period saw a major development in his work, in which the vocabulary of power is elaborated and put to work in genealogies of health, madness and the disciplinary society. Foucault: The Birth of Power studies that pivotal period in Foucault’s career.

The Archaeology of Knowledge was published shortly after the tumultuous events of May 1968, and was, given the time, a curiously apolitical book. That was soon to change. At the time Foucault was a Professor at the experimental University of Vincennes, and was shortly to be elected to a chair at the prestigious Collège de France. Foucault gave courses there on classical and medieval knowledge, peasant revolts in seventeenth century France, the emergence of modern penal systems and psychiatric power. At the same time he was involved in political activism, from the famous Prison Information Group to a parallel group on health which ran campaigns on immigrant health, industrial accidents and was involved in the abortion rights struggle.

Foucault: The Birth of Power, like its companion study Foucault’s Last Decade, makes use of all the available material from this period of Foucault’s work – lecture courses and archival materials alongside his published works. It also makes extensive use of Foucault’s reading notes and other materials newly available at the Bibliothèque National de France in Paris. The book is divided into six chapters, treating the development of the new theoretical tools of genealogy and power through to their utilisation in the studies of health, madness and prisons. As well as these being themes of his own writing, and collaborative research projects in his Collège de France seminar and beyond, they are also the focus of his political activism.

Foucault: The Birth of Power is therefore a work of intellectual history, resituating Foucault’s famous Discipline and Punish within the wider context of its intellectual and political genesis. A roundtable discussing Stuart's two books will be held at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in March at the 'Foucault in Ireland' symposium. Stuart is now turning his attention to the very earliest works by Foucault.