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Agency is commonplace and commonsensical in the humanities and social sciences. We use it to highlight the intention behind particular actions, and especially to mark the efficacy of actions of resistance to power and the overcoming of structure; actions we understand as those of self-making and historical change. Yet, for more than twenty years we have known that agency is not what it seems. Its key aspects presume what it ostensibly negates: autonomy presumes dependence, choice presumes necessity. Agency obscures questions of suffering and passion, and it often pictures the world from a standpoint appearing adjacent to that of the (liberal) individual. Most recently, there has been extensive discussion of distributed agency and that of non-humans. What are we to make of this widespread agency-talk? This course invites students to an experimental exploration of the genealogies of agency, what it arose in response to, what effects it has had and how the concept is today transformed. We will read archaeological, ethnographic and philosophical texts to ask: what does agency have to do with action and intention, with reason and emotion, with will and drive, with need and desire, with self-knowledge and discipline. What kinds of agents are we prepared to recognize; what (patients) does this blind us to? We will consider the tragic, ludic and comedic aspects of action. We will come to ask: Across the contests of the twentieth century what was agency good for? What is it good for now? This class will involve significant preparation and in-class writing exercises.