Foucault News

Jean-Marie Durand, De Deleuze à Foucault, la “French Theory” illustrée dans un magistral essai graphique (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

11 November 2025

Jean-Marie Durand, De Deleuze à Foucault, la “French Theory” illustrée dans un magistral essai graphique, Les Inrockuptibles, 28 octobre 2025

French Theory, itinéraires d’une pensée rebelle de François Cusset, Thomas Daquin (La Découverte, Delcourt, 2025)

Avec “French Theory, itinéraires d’une pensée rebelle”, François Cusset et Thomas Daquin rendent accessibles les concepts-clé de la french theory, aujourd’hui attaqués par l’internationale réactionnaire.

Il y a plus de vingt ans, un jeune historien des idées, François Cusset, publiait un essai qui allait devenir un classique tant il éclairait un élan décisif du champ philosophique français contemporain : French Theory. L’auteur y expliquait la manière dont des philosophes français vaguement négligés chez eux (Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault, Barthes…) étaient devenus des icônes sur les campus américains.

[…]

Le nouvel essai graphique de François Cusset et Thomas Daquin, French Theory, itinéraires d’une pensée rebelle, démarre en rappelant qu’un colloque organisé en 2022 à la Sorbonne par l’ex-ministre Jean-Michel Blanquer, titré “Après la déconstruction : reconstruire les sciences et la culture”, visait directement les penseurs français accusés d’avoir nourri le wokisme ou le racialisme. “Nous avons inoculé le virus, nous devons fournir le vaccin”, osa affirmer Blanquer, à la mesure de tous les réactionnaires du moment, qui désignent Foucault ou Deleuze comme les voix de la décadence française.

François Cusset, Thomas Daquin, French Theory, itinéraires d’une pensée rebelle (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

11 November 2025

François Cusset, Thomas Daquin, French Theory, itinéraires d’une pensée rebelle (La Découverte, Delcourt, 2025)

On connaissait la French Pop , mais connaissez-vous la French Theory ? Comment Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida… sont devenus des stars aux USA et comment leurs théories, sur la déconstruction, le genre, les inégalités ont façonné le débat contemporain.
Entre wokistes et réacs, le débat fait rage. La promesse de ce livre : nous ouvrir grand les yeux, de façon ludique, sur Foucault, Derrida ou Baudrillard et l’aventure de leur singulière théorie, aux USA et au-delà… Les penseurs de la déconstruction, du genre ou du racisme, sont devenus des stars américaines et ont révolutionné nos façons de voir le monde.

Thakur, S. Environmental crises as crises of representation: Community rights and natural resource (Mis) management in India (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

11 November 2025

Thakur, S. Environmental crises as crises of representation: Community rights and natural resource (Mis) management in India. Jindal Global Law Review 16, 357–386 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-025-00273-3

Abstract
If one has to look for the origin to diffusing environmental crises, one must look in the forests and the usurpation of its governance from communities by the developmental state. This paper undertakes an interdisciplinary examination of the nexus between environmental crises, representation, community rights, and natural resource management in India, specifically focusing on the marginalisation of forest dwellers. Drawing insights from subaltern studies and postcolonial theory, the analysis centres on three pivotal moments within the legal framework on forest governance, namely, the enactment of the Forest Rights Act 1972, the Niyamgiri Hills movement and the subsequent court decision, and the 2019 Supreme Court eviction order of forest dwellers from forest land. Through a critical examination of these case studies, the paper argues that environmental crises in India are fundamentally crises of representation, perpetuated by hegemonic structures that marginalise tribal and local voices and interests. The theoretical framework encompasses the works of Antonio Gramsci, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Foucault, among others. This framework can help examine how dominant narratives and power structures shape environmental policies and resource management practices, often to the detriment of the forest-dwelling communities.

Keywords
Forest Rights Act, Adivasi, Forest dwellers, Representation, Traditional knowledge, Natural resource management

CFP: XIV Michel Foucault International Colloquium: 50 Years of The History of Sexuality (2025-6)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

9 November 2025

Call for papers
XIV MICHEL FOUCAULT INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM: 50 YEARS OF THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY
May 26 to 29, 2026
Federal University of Bahia, in Salvador, Brazil.
Instagram
contact: foucaultnabahia@gmail.com
_______________________________________________________________________
CALL FOR PAPERS AND REGISTRATION OF APPLICANTS: ORAL COMMUNICATIONS IN THEMATIC SYMPOSIUMS AND PANELS

1. OVERVIEW
The XIV Michel Foucault International Colloquium: 50 Years of the History of Sexuality will be held in person from May 26 to 29, 2026, at the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.

The Organizing Committee invites submissions of proposals for Oral Communications in Thematic Symposiums (TSs) and for Panel Exhibition Sessions, under the terms described below.

• Thematic Symposiums (TSs) will take place in the afternoons of May 26–28, 2026.
• Panels will be on display from May 26 to 28, with presentation sessions scheduled within this period.

General information:
a. The submission period for Oral Communication and Panel proposals will begin on September 5, 2025, and close on November 30, 2025. Deadlines will not be extended.
b. Proposals will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee.
c. Up to 80 presentations in TSs and 60 panels will be selected.
d. Results will be published on Instagram and on the event website by December 31, 2025.

2. ABOUT THE THEMATIC SYMPOSIUMS (TSs)

a. Eligible applicants for Oral Communication proposals in TSs include:
1. PhDs from Brazil and abroad;
2. PhD students from Brazil and abroad;
3. Professors from higher education institutions in Brazil and abroad;
4. Master’s students, in co-authorship with PhDs or professors from higher education institutions.

Important: Each Oral Communication proposal may have up to three authors.

b. Applicants may submit a proposal to only one TS.

c. Oral Communication proposals must:
i. Relate to one of the themes described in this Call;
ii. Follow the formatting guidelines in this document;
iii. Be submitted through the form available on the event website, under the ENGLISH menu.

d. Abstracts must include:
• Title (in uppercase) and subtitle (if any, in lowercase);
• Name(s) of the proposer(s), academic background, and institutional affiliation (if applicable);
• Contact email;
• Abstract text (150–300 words), including at least the objective of the work and discussion topics;
• 3–5 keywords (capitalized and separated by periods).

e. The list of accepted papers will be published on the website and Instagram page by December 20, 2025.

f. Each accepted paper will be allotted 15 minutes for presentation, followed by discussion.

g. All accepted abstracts will be included in the event’s Abstract Book.

h. Abstracts will be accepted in Portuguese, French, Spanish, and English.

i. The Colloquium will feature three Thematic Symposiums, organized around the following thematic axes:
• Axis 1: Subjection and Insurrection
Race; Gender; Body; Heterotopias; Erotica; Neoliberalism; Governmentality; Madness; The psi field; Criminality.
• Axis 2: Toolbox, Foucauldian Field of Action, and Readings
Interlocutors and/or authors read by Foucault (e.g., Marx, Kant, Nietzsche, Deleuze); Foucauldian readings and areas of research (e.g., Arts, Education, Teaching, History, Law, Literature, Languages).
• Axis 3: Stories and Events
Foucault’s historical analyses and tools: Archaeology; Genealogy; Epistemes; Experiences; Antiquity; Christianity; Modernity.

j. Proposals that do not comply with the rules and guidelines of the TSs will not be evaluated.

3. ABOUT THE PANELS
a. The panel format is intended for individuals with undergraduate or graduate student status.

b. Each panel may have a maximum of three authors and must fit into one of the three thematic axes:
• Theme 1: Subjection and Insurrection
Race; Gender; Body; Heterotopias; Erotica; Neoliberalism; Governmentality; Madness; The psi field; Criminality.
• Theme 2: Toolbox, Foucauldian Field of Action, and Readings
Interlocutors and/or authors read by Foucault (e.g., Marx, Kant, Nietzsche, Deleuze); Foucauldian readings and areas of research (e.g., Arts, Education, Teaching, History, Law, Literature, Languages).
• Theme 3: Stories and Events
Foucault’s historical analyses and tools: Archaeology; Genealogy; Epistemes; Experiences; Antiquity; Christianity; Modernity.

c. Each panel must include a supervising professor from a higher education institution with a minimum qualification of PhD.

d. Each author may submit only one panel proposal.

e. Before submitting a proposal, panel authors must register on the event website, under the ENGLISH menu. Important: In the case of works with multiple authors, all authors must register, but only one should submit the proposal.

f. The submission period for panel proposals is from September 5, 2025, to November 10, 2025.

g. Abstracts must include:
• Title (in uppercase);
• Names of the proponents;
• Abstract text (150–300 words), including at least the objective of the work and discussion topics;
• 3–5 keywords (capitalized and separated by periods).

h. Authors and advisors are responsible for preparing the panels for display during the event.

i. For questions, please contact: foucaultnabahia@gmail.com

Richard Niesche and Denise Mifsud, Thinking with Michel Foucault in Educational Leadership Methodological and Conceptual Challenges (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

8 November 2025

Richard Niesche and Denise Mifsud, Thinking with Michel Foucault in Educational Leadership. Methodological and Conceptual Challenges, Bloomsbury, 2025.

This book brings together key scholars using Foucault in educational leadership to provide an overview of his methodologies, concepts, and examples of applications. Written for both those new to and experienced with Foucault’s work, this book explores new avenues to understand, critique and explore relevant issues in educational leadership. The book features chapters from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Denmark, Italy, the UK and the USA, and includes chapters on global education leadership, decolonial leadership, gender, and digital education governance.

Gibbs, E., et al, Governing the factory: microhistories of the present (2024)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

5 November 2025

Gibbs, E., Mackenzie, E., McKinlay, A., McNulty, D., Philips, J., Procter, S.
Governing the factory: microhistories of the present
(2024) Management and Organizational History

DOI: 10.1080/17449359.2024.2409127

Abstract
Microhistory is an established form of cultural history but marginal to management and organization history. Methodologically, microhistory searches out moments and practices that are meaningful to participants but deeply strange to us. Such peculiar moments are subjected to intense scrutiny to understand how they were meaningful to participants. Understanding the extraordinary becomes the portal to the cultural commonplace. Michel Foucault’s genealogies of modern disciplinary power deployed microhistorical methods to render their meaning and their strangeness visible. Microhistory’s innovative method often remains implicit in narratives. This paper demonstrates the analytical value of microhistory to management and history by considering two events separated by four decades in an aerospace factory.

In the first event, the factory halted production to celebrate New Year’s Eve in 1953. In this world turned upside down the factory was under the temporary authority of the workers. The second event, some forty years later, involved the dismissal of a shop steward for flouting managerial authority and his refusal to identify as an enterprising individual responsible for his work cell’s competitiveness. Management history and organization theory can be enriched by deploying microhistory’s techniques of intense interrogation of moments that confound our assumptions. Microhistory’s ascending analysis dislodges any temptation to read organizational practices and cultures from the boardroom down. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
Foucault; governmentality; microhistory; Rolls-Royce

Reid-Pharr, R.F. Monster in the Archive (2024)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 November 2025

Reid-Pharr, R.F. Monster in the Archive (2024) James Baldwin Review, 10 (1), pp. 21-35.

DOI: 10.7227/JBR.10.2

Abstract
“Monster in the Archive” asks what the presence of a figure with a massive archival presence like James Baldwin does to our understanding of the presumed “absence” or “lack” of Black subjects in American archives. Paying careful attention to Michel Foucault’s observations about archives in “Lives of Infamous Men” as well as Baldwin’s correspondence with his friend, Mary Painter, this article argues that Baldwin’s “exceptionality” forces scholars and archivists to treat his archival presence as monstrous. Moreover, it argues that we need to develop new methods to approach Black archives. Again, following Foucault, the article proposes that we imagine approaching archives through the lens of friendship suggested by Foucault shortly before his death. © The Authors. Published by Manchester University Press and.

Author Keywords
archives; critical fabulation; James Baldwin; Mary Painter; Michel Foucault

Sheehey, B. Between a scalpel and a touch, or, Foucault’s ways of writing the dead (2023)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

31 October 2025

Sheehey, B.
Between a scalpel and a touch, or, Foucault’s ways of writing the dead
(2023) Diacritics, 51 (3), pp. 8-29.

DOI: 10.1353/dia.2023.a938173

Abstract
This essay draws on Michel Foucault’s reflections on his writing practice to develop a reading of his historical inquiries as exercises of what I call “death-writing.” Death-writing is a type of writing that is predicated on death, both the death of the past and the death of others, comprising a way of orienting oneself toward the dead. I argue that Foucault mobilizes the theme of death and writing already since his earlier work in the 1970s. As a practice of death-writing, genealogy aims to diagnose the death of others by tracing their conditions of possibility in death’s entwinement with power. Finally, I suggest that Foucault began experimenting with another practice of death-writing in his Parallel Lives series, a writing that assumes a different affective bearing toward obscure and brief lives

Mills, J., & Thue Bjørndal, C. Endurance running coaching’s mechanical topography: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of coaches’ knowledges (2025)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 October 2025

Mills, J., & Thue Bjørndal, C. (2025). Endurance running coaching’s mechanical topography: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of coaches’ knowledges. Sports Coaching Review, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2025.2541142

ABSTRACT
Michel Foucault was part of a French revolution of history seeking deeper understandings of history beyond narratives of “great men” and their events. As a historian of the body and power, Foucault’s work is applicable to move endurance running coaches beyond the narratives of great coaches and their knowledges and practices. Discourse and knowledge are well-used concepts in Foucauldian coach scholarship, but specific Foucauldian discourse analyses are rare. Given endurance coaches aim to produce fast runners, adopting Foucault’s work could be both intriguing and compelling. Following, as faithfully as possible, Foucault’s discursive method, we analysed six of the most popular endurance running coaching textbooks to show how the endurance body can only be articulated as a machine, which may undermine coaches and their athletes’ development and performances.

KEYWORDS:
Foucault discourse knowledge body coaching