Foucault News

Séminaire: Penser avec Foucault. Collège de France (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

5 July 2026

Séminaire: Penser avec Foucault. Collège de France (2026)

du Mardi 5 mai au Mardi 2 juin 2026.
Voir aussi Michel Foucault au Collège de France

Présentation
À l’occasion du centenaire de la naissance de Michel Foucault, il s’agit de s’interroger sur les multiples formes de sa présence aussi bien dans le champ intellectuel, où il est l’auteur moderne le plus cité au monde, que dans l’espace social, puisqu’il a été pour beaucoup d’acteurs une source d’inspiration. Ni exégèse de l’œuvre, ni hagiographie de l’homme, le cours est une invitation à explorer, au-delà des concepts novateurs qu’il a proposés, une manière de penser, de questionner les évidences et d’opérer des déplacements qui a imprimé une trace profonde dans les sciences humaines et sociales. Il s’attache aux empreintes laissées par ses travaux sur plusieurs continents, les débats et critiques ainsi que les appropriations et détournements auxquels ils ont donné lieu, en dialogue parfois avec des recherches personnelles. Le séminaire et le colloque prolongeront et enrichiront cette réflexion.

Programme
Répression et pouvoir. Le tournant de la sexualité
Frédéric Gros

Histoire des prisons. Le moment GIP en héritage
Philippe Artières

Attachés sur le dos d’un tigre. Michel Foucault et la vérité
Judith Revel

Une politique sans horizon est-elle possible ?
Mathieu Potte-Bonneville

Savoirs et pouvoirs dans les expériences démocratiques
José Luis Moreno Pestaña

Didier Fassin, Ainsi pensait Michel Foucault. Enquête sur une philosophie pour notre temps (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

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5 July 2026

Didier Fassin, Ainsi pensait Michel Foucault. Enquête sur une philosophie pour notre temps, La Découverte, 2026 (Parution : 03/09/2026)

Après Leçons de ténèbres, le nouveau cours de Didier Fassin au Collège de France.

À l’occasion du centenaire de la naissance de Michel Foucault, cet ouvrage analyse l’empreinte laissée par son œuvre, dans le champ intellectuel comme dans l’espace social. Didier Fassin en retrace les lignes de force, en les replaçant dans leur contexte d’émergence et dans leurs usages actuels.

Didier Fassin est anthropologue et médecin, professeur au Collège de France sur la chaire Questions morales et enjeux politiques dans les sociétés contemporaines et à l’Institute for Advanced Study de Princeton. Il est l’auteur de vingt-cinq livres traduits en douze langues, dont Une étrange défaite. Sur le consentement à la destruction de Gaza (La Découverte, 2024), et a dirigé une trentaine d’ouvrages collectifs, dont La société qui vient (Seuil, 2022).

With thanks to Progressive Geographies for this news

Stuart Elden, Foucault’s visits to the Americas in the early 1970s (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 July 2026

Foucault’s Visit to McGill University, and his meetings with Quebec separatists – Stuart Elden and Marcelo Hoffman on the Verso blog

Stuart Elden and Marcelo Hoffman, Foucault’s Visit to McGill University and his meetings with Quebec separatists (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 July 2026

Stuart Elden and Marcelo Hoffman, Foucault’s Visit to McGill University and his meetings with Quebec separatists, Verso blog, 2 July 2026

Michel Foucault gave some lectures on Friedrich Nietzsche at McGill University in April 1971. This was his first visit to Canada.
[…]

Foucault arrived in Montreal only months after the October Crisis of 1970. The crisis was triggered by the separate kidnappings of the British Trade Commissioner James Cross and the Deputy Premier of Québec Pierre Laporte by cells of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) in early October. The FLQ sought to use the kidnappings as leverage to force the federal government to meet various demands, including the release of imprisoned FLQ members.
[…]

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that he had an interesting political experience in Québec. Foucault may well have detected powerful resonances between the climate of political repression in Canada and the contemporary situation in France. Only months before the October Crisis in Canada, the French state proscribed a Maoist organization, the Gauche prolétarienne (Proletarian Left), with which Foucault had close connections, especially through Daniel Defert, who discusses this in his Une vie politique (Part I, Ch. 3).

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Brendon Murphy & Benedict Sheehy, Language games and corporate psychopaths (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

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29 June 2026

Brendon Murphy & Benedict Sheehy (2026). Chapter 7: Language games and corporate psychopaths. In Research Handbook on Corporate Psychopaths,
pp. 102–117 . Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035326525.00013

Abstract
This chapter explores psychopathic discourse in political and managerial communication, focusing on how language is used to manipulate, distract, and assert control through framing, labelling, and undermining veracity. It examines the strategic deployment of rhetorical tactics that promote egocentrism, create division, and disregard truth, especially in environments amplified by social media. The concept of “bullshit”, as distinguished from lies and obscurity, is central to this analysis—highlighting how performative and vague language can erode trust and distort reality. “Buzzword bingo”, a satirical game targeting managerial jargon, serves as an entry point into this discussion, revealing how repetitive, empty phrases signal a broader discursive pathology. Such tactics not only threaten democratic processes by distorting public discourse but also undermine organisational effectiveness by masking critical information and reducing employee confidence. The chapter concludes with insights from Foucauldian discourse analysis and explores how identifying and resisting such manipulative language can restore clarity and accountability.

Changyuan Chen, The figures of the cogito: Foucault, Derrida and the possibility of transcendental phenomenology (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

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26 June 2026

Changyuan Chen, The figures of the cogito: Foucault, Derrida and the possibility of transcendental phenomenology. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, First published: 05 June 2026
https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.70049

Abstract
This article examines the early Foucault as a reader of Husserl, a frequently overlooked dimension of his thought that nonetheless paved the way for the Foucault we recognize today. Drawing on his recently published manuscripts on phenomenology, it reconstructs the distinctive interpretation of phenomenology that the young Foucault was developing. Influenced by Heidegger and Fink, he sought to understand the transcendental cogito along a non-Cartesian path, thereby opening up phenomenology to ontological possibilities. Viewed through a Hegelian lens, he refused to confine phenomenology to mere descriptive analysis; instead, by tracing the interplay between the transcendental and the historical, he articulated a speculative orientation that characterized phenomenology as a “rationalism of being”. The article concludes by revisiting the cogito debate between Derrida and Foucault, revealing an unexpected proximity between the two philosophers.

Rachael S. Burke, Chrissie Keepa, Silence in the Shadows: Reflections on Student Participation in Research on Te Reo Māori and Te Tiriti Commitments in Aotearoa New Zealand (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

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22 June 2026

Rachael S. Burke, Chrissie Keepa, Silence in the Shadows: Reflections on Student Participation in Research on Te Reo Māori and Te Tiriti Commitments in Aotearoa New Zealand, Kōtuitui New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2026, 21, e70033.
https://doi.org/10.1002/kot2.70033

Abstract
This article offers a critical and reflexive analysis of a research process conducted at a tertiary institute in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a particular focus on how participation and non-participation shape understandings of teaching, learning, and te reo Māori development in initial teacher education. Drawing on data generated through the original study, the article re-examines the research process itself as a site of inquiry. Undertaken by staff at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, the original research sought to interrogate the pedagogical strategies used to support student learning of te reo Māori and their preparedness to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to question whose knowledges and voices are legitimised in classroom spaces. However, an unexpected pattern of participation, where 83% of students did not respond, became a central analytical focus for this article. Rather than treating this as a methodological failure, the article interprets non-participation as a meaningful outcome that reflects the complex interplay of institutional, cultural, and relational dynamics. Drawing on Foucault’s theory of power and knowledge, this reflection looks at how power operates as a network of relations shaping what is heard, who speaks, and what is silenced. The research process became a site of critical inquiry, prompting teaching staff to reconsider assumptions about language, identity, and student engagement while also highlighting the conditions under which student voice is enabled or constrained. This article contributes to ongoing conversations about decolonising tertiary education, highlighting the ethical and pedagogical importance of attending to silence, power, and participation in both teaching and research practices.

Tamara J. Young, Rochelle Einboden, Power, Resistance, and Family Absence During Resuscitation: A Foucauldian Analysis (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

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19 June 2026

Tamara J. Young, Rochelle Einboden 2026. Power, Resistance, and Family Absence During Resuscitation: A Foucauldian Analysis. Nursing Inquiry 32: e70111.
https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.70111

ABSTRACT
Although family presence during resuscitation demonstrates benefits such as facilitating the grieving process through fostering a sense of closeness, providing reassurance that all efforts were made, and offering an opportunity for a final farewell, its integration for adult patients in healthcare facilities remains contested. Drawing on a Foucauldian lens, this paper explores the complex network of power relations that sustain resistance towards family presence during resuscitation. What counts as truth, and what knowledge is rendered admissible in this discussion, is an effect of the discursive power relations that envelop and organize this practice. Offering a perspective that moves beyond the dominant discourse of benefit–risk analysis, this paper explores the underlying structures that frame the context of family presence during resuscitation. Examination points to the tenacity of power that sustains medical and organizational authority amidst the proliferation of rhetoric of patient- and family-centered care. Knowledge mobilization to support practice advancement requires more than reiterating or disseminating evidence; it necessitates examination of the power relations that marginalize nursing knowledge, the identification of points of resistance, and the exploration of opportunities for nursing to act as a catalyst for meaningful change.

Dimitrios Lais, Foucault’s Ethics of Genealogy. Antiquity, (Neo) Governmentality, and Globalisation (2026)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

16 June 2026

Dimitrios Lais, Foucault’s Ethics of Genealogy. Antiquity, (Neo) Governmentality, and Globalisation, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026

About this book
This book offers a bold reinterpretation of Michel Foucault’s late work, reconstructing him as an ethical philosopher whose account of antiquity provides crucial resources for understanding contemporary forms of power. Bringing Foucault into original dialogue with Habermas, Beck, and Giddens, the book develops a genealogical reading that bridges Foucault’s analyses of self‑formation, governmentality, and modernity. It shows how key democratic and globalisation‑related theories—often assumed to stand apart from neoliberal modes of rule—can themselves reproduce subtle forms of governmentality.Through a sustained engagement with ancient ethical practices, cognitive ethics, reflexive modernisation, and global third‑way politics, the book demonstrates how Foucault’s late thought offers both a critique of modern Western societies and a heuristic framework for creative self‑care in the present.

Dimitrios Lais is an Associate Fellow at the Morrell Centre for Legal and Political Philosophy, University of York, UK

Gutting, Gary and Johanna Oksala, “Michel Foucault”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2026 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.) (2003, 2026)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

16 June 2026

Gutting, Gary and Johanna Oksala, “Michel Foucault”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2026 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.)

First published Wed Apr 2, 2003; substantive revision Tue Apr 21, 2026

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French historian and philosopher, associated with the structuralist and post-structuralist movements. He has had strong influence not only in philosophy but also in a wide range of humanistic and social scientific disciplines.
[…]

1. Biographical Sketch

Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, on October 15, 1926. As a student he was brilliant but psychologically tormented. He became academically established during the 1960s, holding a series of positions at French universities, before his election in 1969 to the prestigious Collège de France, where he was Professor of the History of Systems of Thought until his death. From the 1970s on, Foucault was very active politically. He was a founder of the Groupe d’information sur les prisons and often protested on behalf of marginalized groups. He frequently lectured outside France, particularly in the United States, and in 1983 had agreed to teach annually at the University of California at Berkeley. An early victim of AIDS, Foucault died in Paris on June 25, 1984. In addition to works published during his lifetime, his lectures at the Collège de France, published posthumously, contain important elucidations and extensions of his ideas.