The Perils of Academic Ignorance

By LENNARD J. DAVIS

Recently, in a graduate course on theory, I decided to end the semester with a reading of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, a compelling critique of biopolitics by the trendy Italian philosopher Georgio Agamben. When I reread it for the final class, I was struck by the work's powerful and applicable insights. Indeed, one of the graduate students told...