The traditional Western model of the role of the humanities in the university, inherited from the 19th c., needs rethinking. Our subtitle emphasizes two components of this model. *Discipline*, because the idea of personal and professional formation is based on a pattern of self-fashioning which looks back to classical sources, early Christian ascetic practices, monasticism, and the secular humanisms of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. These ideals passed into the model of the university, where they are still silently in place (e.g., the very idea of the "disciplines"). *Desire*, because disciplinary practices are ambivalently driven by values and incentives that are laden with affect, that is by desires and modes of enjoyment which are organized by sublimation, postponement, or negation. We will look at the contradictions and tensions in these disciplinary practices, particularly in relation to the nation-state, colonialism, and conceptions of the self, and in view of globalization, multiculturalism, and interdisciplinarity. The format will be that of a seminar, supplemented by guest lectures and an interdisciplinary conference ("Body/Bildung: Discipline, Desire, and the Humanities") to be held in October.
Inquiries may be sent to Prof. Porter (jport@umich.edu).