Foucault News

Arnault Skornicki, Michel Foucault, the State and the Social Sciences (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

12 September 2025

Arnault Skornicki, Michel Foucault, the State and the Social Sciences, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025

Based on the French La grande Soif de l’État. Michel Foucault avec les sciences sociales (2016).

About this book
This book proposes an original reading of Foucault’s political thought. Far from setting aside the question of the State to focus on the relationships of power “from below”, the Foucauldian approach offers a radical anti-substantialist theory of the State. Concepts such as biopolitics, discipline, pastoral power, and governmentality serve as tools for understanding the statization of power relations. Contrary to some of Foucault’s own statements, Skornicki highlights the elective affinities between genealogy and sociology, which enable an in-depth dialogue with Marxism, Max Weber, Norbert Elias, Edward P. Thompson, among others. Unexpectedly, the analytics of power appears thereby as a corrosive and productive science of the State. The author meticulously reconstructs, drawing on Foucault’s extensive body of work, how his famous ‘microphysics of power’ fits into a broader genealogy of the modern State—namely, the processes of political monopolization that have shaped the so-called Leviathan from the Middle Ages to the present. The State thus emerges not as the coldest of all cold monsters, nor simply as a vast apparatus of repression, but rather as both the product and the agent of multiple governmentalities, diverse rationalities, and various religious tendencies—ranging from the modern rule of law to totalitarianism and neoliberal bureaucracy. This is not just a new book about Foucault. It is a book about the State and the enduring possibility of theorizing it—immersed once more in the caustic waters of genealogy.

With thanks to Progressive Geographies for this news

Michel Foucault. Edited by Elisabetta Basso. Binswanger and Existential Analysis (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

11 September 2025

Michel Foucault. Edited by Elisabetta Basso. Binswanger and Existential Analysis
General Editor: François Ewald. English Series Editor: Bernard E. Harcourt. Translated by Marie Satya McDonough. Foreword by Bernard E. Harcourt. Columbia University Press, 2025.

In the early 1950s, the young Michel Foucault took a keen interest in the method of existential analysis—Daseinsanalyse—developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger. He gave a lecture course on this topic at the University of Lille in the spring of 1953 and wrote a detailed introduction to the 1954 French translation of Binswanger’s Dream and Existence (1930), in which he promised a forthcoming book that would “situate existential analysis within the development of contemporary reflection on man.” This book presents Foucault’s unpublished manuscript on Binswanger and existential analysis for the first time in English, offering crucial insight into his intellectual development.

Foucault carries out a systematic examination of Daseinsanalyse, contrasting it with psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology and championing its ambition to understand mental illness. In his critique of existential analysis, Foucault began his turn toward emphasizing the primacy of experience, which would lead to the radically new perspective and genealogical methods of The History of Madness and The History of Sexuality. Revealing a little-known influence on Foucault’s historicist approach, Binswanger and Existential Analysis reminds us of his unparalleled ability to destabilize our conceptions of self.

Michel Foucault (1926–1984), a French philosopher, historian, and social theorist, was one of the most important figures in twentieth-century thought.

Elisabetta Basso is an associate professor at the University of Pavia and a member of the Centre d’archives en philosophie, histoire et édition des sciences at the École normale supérieure of Paris.

François Ewald is a political philosopher and historian who oversaw the publication of Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France.

Marie Satya McDonough is a master lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Boston University.

Bernard E. Harcourt is a chaired professor at Columbia University and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris and has edited a range of works by Foucault in French and English.

APPEL À CANDIDATURES | Bourse internationale IMEC/ Centre Michel FOUCAULT (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

10 September 2025

APPEL À CANDIDATURES | Bourse internationale IMEC/ Centre Michel FOUCAULT
15 décembre 2025

Version PDF
L’Imec et le Centre Michel Foucault lancent un appel à chercheur pour l’attribution de la 5ème Bourse internationale Imec/Centre Michel Foucault.

L’Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (Imec), préserve et met en valeur une collection exceptionnelle d’archives dédiée à l’histoire de la pensée et de la création contemporaine. Depuis sa fondation, l’IMEC contribue au rayonnement de la recherche sur la vie littéraire, éditoriale, artistique et intellectuelle. Dans ce cadre, l’Imec souhaite renforcer sa politique de coopération professionnelle et scientifique avec le monde de la recherche, et en particulier auprès des chercheurs internationaux.

L’Association pour le Centre Michel Foucault a été fondée en 1986, à l’initiative de chercheurs internationaux qui ont accompagné le développement du travail et de la pensée de l’auteur des Mots et les choses. Initialement créé pour rassembler documents, archives et travaux composant l’œuvre de Foucault, pour faciliter et coordonner des recherches se rapportant à son œuvre ou s’inspirant de ses orientations et de ses méthodes et pour développer les échanges internationaux autour de cette œuvre, le Centre Michel Foucault a également accompagné durant les 3 dernières décennies la publication des Dits et écrits puis des cours au Collège de France, en lien avec des activités de recherche menées à partir des archives déposées à l’Imec et à la BnF.

La Bourse Michel Foucault s’inscrit par conséquent dans cette dynamique de valorisation, au cœur des objectifs du CMF.

Objet de la bourse/
Ouverte prioritairement à un·e doctorant·e, fondée sur une invitation en résidence et dotée de 2.000 euros, cette « Bourse Imec / Centre Michel Foucault » est dédiée à une recherche originale portant sur la pensée de Michel Foucault, ses influences et son rayonnement.

L’œuvre foucaldienne permet d’interroger l’ensemble du champ des sciences humaines et sociales. Dans le cadre magnifique de l’abbaye d’Ardenne, les collections de l’Imec proposent de nombreuses ressources au premier rang desquelles les archives et la bibliothèque du Centre Michel Foucault, les archives de maisons d’édition, de revues et d’auteurs en dialogue avec la pensée de l’auteur des Mots et des choses.

Confiées à l’Imec en 1997, le fonds du Centre Michel Foucault est constitué des enregistrements des cours donnés par Michel Foucault au Collège de France, auxquels viennent s’ajouter certains séminaires donnés aux États-Unis, des entretiens et des émissions radiophoniques. On y trouve également les manuscrits de quelques articles, de la correspondance et des dossiers de presse. Une très importante bibliothèque d’études est associée aux documents d’archives.

Sélection des candidatures/
La « Bourse Imec/Centre Michel Foucault » est ouverte prioritairement à un•e doctorant•e, issu•e d’une université internationale.

Parmi les critères retenus, figurent :

l’intérêt du sujet et la qualité du dossier présenté, l’originalité de la démarche critique et documentaire, son lien avec les archives conservées à l’IMEC
le parcours académique et les publications du candidat
les recommandations de professeurs et spécialistes du domaine

Statut du chercheur « Bourse Imec / Centre Michel Foucault »/
Inscrit•e dans une université ou une grande école internationale, le·la lauréat·e sera invité·e en résidence à l’abbaye d’Ardenne pour l’équivalent d’une durée de 2 mois. Le lauréat recevra une bourse d’un montant de 2.000 (deux mille) euros.

Le·la lauréat·e bénéficiera du service d’orientation et de conseil de l’Institut ainsi que des instruments de recherche réalisés pour l’ensemble des fonds et collections.
Il bénéficiera de la gratuité des titres d’accès.

Le·la lauréat·e sera invité·e à contribuer aux publications de l’IMEC, en particulier aux Carnets de l’IMEC, et sur tous supports de diffusion de l’Institut ainsi que sur le site internet du Centre Michel Foucault.
Un contrat co-signé entre la directrice générale de l’IMEC et le lauréat formalisera le statut du boursier.
La « Bourse de recherche Imec/Centre Michel Foucault » n’est attribuée qu’une seule fois dans le cadre de ce contrat.

Évaluation/
L’attribution de la bourse de recherche est soumise à une obligation de résultats.
Un compte rendu sera remis par le chercheur à l’issue de sa résidence et communiqué au Conseil scientifique de l’Institut.
Un article de 15 à 20.000 signes publiable conjointement sur le site du Centre Michel Foucault et celui de l’IMEC.
Une conférence donnée dans un cadre à définir (éventuellement en ouverture des journées doctorales).

Candidature/
L’appel pour la « Bourse Imec/ Centre Michel Foucault » s’adresse prioritairement aux doctorant·e·s, spécialisé·e·s en sciences humaines issu·e·s d’une université internationale.
Contact : appelbourseimec@imec-archives.com

La candidature doit être transmise par voie électronique à l’adresse suivante : appelbourseimec@imec-archives.com
Un accusé de réception non automatisé est adressé dans les 10 jours ouvrés suivant la date de réception.

Le dossier de candidature se compose des pièces suivantes :

Fiche de candidature à remplir (jointe)

Fiche de candidature à remplir (jointe)
Curriculum vitae et lettre de motivation du candidat
Publications du candidat
Note d’intention entre 5 000 et 8 000 signes maximum
Une lettre de soutien du directeur ou de la directrice de recherche
Une lettre de soutien d’une personnalité du monde académique

Le dossier sera exclusivement adressé au format PDF, sous forme d’un seul fichier à l’adresse appelbourseimec@imec-archives.com.
L’objet du mail devra indiquer : nom et prénom du candidat et la mention « Candidature Bourse IMEC / Centre Michel Foucault ».
Merci de bien vouloir noter que tout dossier incomplet ne sera pas étudié.
Le format maximum autorisé est de 500 Ko.
En l’absence d’accusé de réception, les candidat·e·s sont invité·e·s à renouveler leur envoi et à écrire à l’adresse appelbourseimec@imec-archives.com.

Calendrier/
Date limite de dépôt des dossiers : 15 décembre 2025
Désignation lauréat·e : 30 janvier 2026
Durée de la résidence : 2 mois

Fiche de candidature/

Nom :
Prénom :
Date de naissance :
Nationalité :
Adresse postale :
Téléphone :
Adresse électronique :

Université d’inscription :
Adresse
Code postal / Ville

Sujet de thèse :
Directeur·rice de thèse :

Résumé de l’argumentaire de recherche (10 lignes) :

Tivadar Vervoort, “Nous Sommes Tous Néokantiens”: Foucault, Lukács, and the Critique of Social Forms (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

10 September 2025

Tivadar Vervoort, “Nous Sommes Tous Néokantiens”: Foucault, Lukács, and the Critique of Social Forms, HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 2025 15:1, 209-241

Abstract
In his introduction to Canguilhem’s Le normal et le pathologique, Michel Foucault claims that the “question of Enlightenment” has been taken up differently in the German and French philosophical traditions. Nevertheless, Foucault signals a “correspondence” between the works of Georg Lukács and the Frankfurt School, on the one hand, and the French epistemologists (including himself), on the other. In this article, I deepen this correspondence by assessing Foucault’s and Lukács’s respective relations to the neo-Kantian problem of the form and content of knowledge. In theorizing the problem of reification, Lukács mobilizes Emil Lask’s understanding of the concept “form of objectivity.” He starts from Lask’s unification of the form and content of knowledge by suggesting that the commodity form emerges as the form of objectivity that constitutes both objects and subjects of knowledge in capitalist societies. I show that Foucault’s use of the notions episteme, historical a priori, and regime of truth shares the neo-Kantian concern with of the content of knowledge. By arguing that Foucault’s critique of the philosophical anthropology underlying Marxism does not apply to Lukács’s neo-Kantianism, I make room for considering both of their philosophical strategies as a “critique of social forms.”

Tuomo Tiisala, Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons Elaborating Foucault’s Pragmatism (2024)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

8 September 2025

Tuomo Tiisala, Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons Elaborating Foucault’s Pragmatism, Routledge, 2024

Open access

Description
This book argues that the received view of the distinction between freedom and power must be rejected because it rests on an untenable account of the discursive cognition that endows individuals with the capacity for autonomy and self-governed rationality.

In liberal and Kantian approaches alike, the autonomous subject is a self-standing starting point whose freedom is constrained by relations of power only contingently because they are external to the subject’s constitution. Thus, the received view defines the distinction between freedom and power as a dichotomy. Michel Foucault is arguably the most important critic of that dichotomy. However, it is widely agreed that Foucault falls short of justifying the alternative view he develops, where power and freedom are essentially entangled instead. The book fills out the gap by investigating the social preconditions of discursive cognition. Drawing on pragmatist-inferentialist resources from the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein, Sellars, and Brandom), it presents a new interpretation of Foucault’s philosophy that is unified by his overlooked idea of “the archaeology of knowledge.” As a result, the book not only explains why and how power and freedom must be entangled but also what it means ethically to pursue and gain autonomy with respect to one’s own understanding.

Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in social and political philosophy, critical theory, ethics, philosophy of language, and the history of 20th-century philosophy.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 license.

Any third party material in this book is not included in the OA Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. Please direct any permissions enquiries to the original rightsholder.

This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/COE3]. For open access purposes, the author has applied a CC BY-NC public copyright license to any author-accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): 10.55776/PUB1157

Winsky, N. and Onusseit, C. The Rickshaw as In-Between: Heterotopias and Social Participation (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

7 September 2025

Winsky, N. and Onusseit, C. (2025), The Rickshaw as In-Between: Heterotopias and Social Participation in Aging. Population, Space and Place, 31: e70068.
https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.70068

ABSTRACT
As the population aged 65 and older significantly increases, understanding the dynamics within nursing homes becomes crucial. Residents often face loneliness upon entering these facilities, experiencing a disconnection from their previous lives and parts of society. The initiative “Cycling Without Age” fosters reconnection through volunteer-led rickshaw rides. This study conceptualizes the rickshaw as an in-between space, expanding on Foucault’s notion of heterotopia. By examining the interplay between nursing homes as heterotopic sites and the rickshaw as an intermediary space, this study draws on 24 qualitative interviews with volunteers, highlighting how the interactions between pilots and passengers enhance social engagement and challenge existing societal structures such as spatial exclusion. Our theoretical-conceptual contribution engages in a ludic dialogue between Foucault’s concept of heterotopias and our empirical material, speculating on the role that the rickshaw, as a mobile, micro-scale in-between space, can play between the heterotopic nursing home and the non-heterotopic rest of space.

CFP: Psychoanalysis in Transition: New Queer Approaches in 21st-Century France. Panel NeMLA (2025-2026)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

5 September 2025

Call for papers: Psychoanalysis in Transition: New Queer Approaches in 21st-Century France
Northeast Modern Language Association Convention
2026-03-05 to 2026-03-08
Gannon University
Erie, Pennsylvania. USA

Since the 1970s, LGBTQ+ Francophone authors and scholars have produced an expansive critique of psychoanalytic practices and thought. Despite their differing views, Guy Hocquenghem, Michel Foucault, Monique Wittig, Didier Eribon, Sam Bourcier, and Paul B. Preciado have all underscored the normative tendencies of psychoanalysis (particularly in its structuralist Lacanian tradition) and its complicity in enforcing the regime of sexual difference. “We urgently need clinical practice to transition,” Preciado urged the École de la cause freudienne in 2019. “This cannot happen without a revolutionary mutation in psychoanalysis, and a critical challenge of its patriarchal-colonial presuppositions.”

Around that time, a loose coalition of French psychoanalysts advocating for queer, feminist, and postcolonial approaches emerged. Fabrice Bourlez, for example, proposes reconciling psychoanalysis and queer theory through the concept of the “minor clinic,” which he argues is better suited to plural, non-normative subjectivities. Similarly, Thamy Ayouch advocates for the “hybridization” of psychoanalysis through queer, postcolonial, and decolonial discourses to move away from the medicalization of minor subjectivities. Laurie Laufer draws on second-wave feminism, Foucauldian critique, and LGBTQ+ activism to promote an “emancipation of psychoanalysis” through the politicisation of its praxis.

Can this new paradigm effectively combat queerphobic and transphobic tendencies within the French psychoanalytic establishment? Can psychoanalysis truly “transition,” or should queer thought, as Eribon suggests, “turn its back on psychoanalysis.”

This panel welcomes papers that explore emerging queer and intersectional approaches to psychoanalysis in France, from theoretical, literary, clinical and activist perspectives.

We welcome papers related, but not limited, to the following topics:

– Queer legacies of 1970s critiques of structuralist psychoanalysis
– Psychoanalysis and debates around same-sex unions and non-normative kinship in 21st-century France
– Transphobia and psychoanalysis: (de)pathologising discourses and practices
– Queer, feminist and decolonial approaches to psychoanalysis today
– Queer transatlantic dialogues between France and the U.S.
– The future of psychoanalysis in France
– How queer/trans Francophone authors use, reject or rework psychoanalytic theories

Please submit a title, abstract (200-250 words) and a short biography through the NeMLA portal by Sept 30th 2025. Papers may be presented in English or French.

For any questions, feel free to email Benoit Loiseau : bl4115@nyu.edu

Maddalena Cerrato, Michel Foucault’s Practical Philosophy. A Critique of Subjectivation Processes (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 September 2025

Maddalena Cerrato, Michel Foucault’s Practical Philosophy. A Critique of Subjectivation Processes, SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought, De Gruyter Brill, 2025

Interview with author on New Books site, 2 September 2025

About this book
Offers a wholistic approach to Michel Foucault’s thought introducing the idea of practical philosophy as an original interpretative framework.

Michel Foucault’s thought, Maddalena Cerrato writes, may be understood as practical philosophy. In this perspective, political analysis, philosophy of history, epistemology, and ethics appear as necessarily cast together in a philosophical project that aims to rethink freedom and emancipation from domination of all kinds. The idea of practical philosophy accounts for Foucault’s specific approach to the object, as well as to the task of philosophy, and it identifies the perspective that led him to consider the question of subjectivity as the guiding thread of his work. Overall, Cerrato shows the deep consistency underlying Foucault’s reflection and the substantial coherence of his philosophical itinerary, setting aside all the conventional interpretations that pivot on the idea that his thought underwent a radical “turn” from the political engagement of the question of power toward an ethical retrieval of the question of subjectivity.

Maddalena Cerrato is Assistant Professor of Critical Theory in the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University.

Allsobrook, C. The Structural Violence of Imperial Trusteeship in Postcolonial Governmentality (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 September 2025

Allsobrook, C. (2025). The Structural Violence of Imperial Trusteeship in Postcolonial Governmentality. African Studies, 1–20.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2025.2536036

ABSTRACT
The article considers how structural violence in African polities has displaced sovereign agency and responsibility for its harmful effects by extending imperial practices of trusteeship in postcolonial governmentality. It explains how, with liberation, decolonisation and political independence, imperial practices of indirect rule and informal empire – legitimised with reference to trusteeship – have resulted in practices of domination, which are instantiated in structural violence. Trusteeship formally displaces the direct agency of coercive imperial colonisation, first, by disguising it as protection and development assistance, and second, by setting up proxy domestic political agents to stand in for absent imperial sovereignty. I analyse these dynamics with reference to Foucault’s account of governmentality and his theories of power to explain African complicity with empire. I then review and critique Mbembe’s analysis of necropolitics in the postcolony to explain a weakness in his account, which leads him to misconstrue these conflicts in terms of sovereign power, thereby misrepresenting the agency of the consequent African victims of postcolonial structural violence, without pointing to any way out. To correct this misunderstanding, and to identify a basis for emancipatory agency in Africa, I turn to Biko’s critical analysis of Black governmentality under apartheid, which points forward to postcolonial empowerment.

KEYWORDS:
structural violence, postcolonial governmentality, necropolitics, biopower, disciplinary power, trusteeship

CFP: The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Foucault Circle (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

3 September 2025

CALL FOR PAPERS
The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the
Foucault Circle
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana
April 3-5, 2026

We seek submissions for papers on any aspect of Foucault’s work, as well as studies, critiques, and applications of Foucauldian thinking. This conference also celebrates the centennial of Foucault’s birth, so we also welcome biographical retrospectives and papers that set an agenda for the next century of Foucauldian thought.

Paper submissions require an abstract of no more than 750 words. All submissions should be formatted as a “.doc” or “.docx” attachment, prepared for anonymous review, and sent via email to the attention of program committee chair Anna Ahlgren (anna.ahlgren@specped.su.se) on or before November 1, 2025. Indicate “Foucault Circle submission” in the subject heading. Program decisions will be announced in December.

We expect that the conference will begin Friday afternoon and will conclude around lunchtime on Sunday. Presenters will have approximately 40 minutes for paper presentation and discussion combined; papers should be a maximum of 3500 words (20-25 minutes reading time). Please note that conference presentations will be in person and in English.

Logistical information about lodging, transportation, and other arrangements will be available after the program has been announced.

For more information about the Foucault Circle, please see our website
http://www.foucaultcircle.org
or contact our Coordinator, Brad Elliott Stone
brad.stone@lmu.edu