CALL FOR PAPERS

 

AFTER THE DEATH OF THE HUMAN

Michel Foucault’s 100th Anniversary International Conference 

University of Lisbon, Portugal | June 18–19, 2026

 

The centenary of Michel Foucault’s birth offers a timely opportunity to reassess the profound contribution of his philosophy to our understanding of human subjectivity in the interwoven contexts of knowledge, power, ethics, and aesthetics, as these unfold throughout history, culture, and society.

Inspired by Foucault’s oeuvre and its diverse legacies, this conference invites reflection on a fundamental question: What is—and what can become of—humanity after the “death of man”? How does this notion relate to the “death of God,” the rise of biopolitics, and the ongoing erosion of core values such as truth, justice, freedom, equality, solidarity, and peace?

The implications of a post-human critique must be reexamined in light of contemporary global challenges, including the renewal of democratic institutions, the protection of universal human rights, and the pursuit of sustainable development. Engaging with, and perhaps also moving beyond, Foucault’s concepts and methodologies, we aim to better understand our historical condition—one in which the apparent farewell to “humanity” and “human nature” coexists with both the proliferation of nihilisms and the unexpected revival of plural humanisms animated by distinct philosophical stances, including the Enlightenment ideal of the public use of critical reason.

We welcome proposals for individual papers and panel sessions that address Foucault’s philosophical anthropology (or lack thereof) across the full span of his intellectual trajectory. Topics may include, for example, Foucault’s engagements with psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and existential psychology, as well as his readings of Stoicism, Kant, Marx, and Nietzsche. The conference seeks to offer an interdisciplinary forum for exploring Foucault’s diverse “views of man” from multiple perspectives—ethical, aesthetic, political, legal, educational, medical, psychiatric, or criminological—employing his key methodological tools (notably archaeology and genealogy), while remaining open to innovative reinterpretations.

As suggested by the conference title, the thematic scope is broad. Possible areas for contribution include, but are not limited to:

1.     Ethics and Aesthetics of the Self

2.     Power in Foucault and Emerging Forms of Power (e.g.,Algorithmic Governmentality)

3.     Political Action and Political Change: Disobedience, Resistance, Revolution

4.     Foucault’s Concept of Man and New Anthropologies (e.g., Donna Haraway)

5.     Foucault and the Anthropocene

6.     Epistemology and Interdisciplinarity in Foucault

7.     Knowledge, History, and the Historical A Priori

8.     Sexuality, Gender, and Pleasure in Foucault

9.     Medicine, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychopathology

10.  Education, Schooling, and Disciplinary Practices

11.  Literature, Art, and Cinema in Foucault’s Thought

12.  Criminology, Surveillance, and Social Anxiety

13.  Critique and Parrhesia

14.  Kant’s Enlightenment and Foucault’s Modernity

15.  Foucault and Postmodern Critique (e.g., Decolonial and Racial Theories)

16.  Foucault and the Question of Realism

17.  Foucault Today: Reflections on New Publications and Unpublished Texts

 

Submission Guidelines 

We invite submissions for individual papers and thematically cohesive panels (consisting of 3 or 4 papers). Each submission should include:

- A title, abstract (300–500 words), and 4–5 keywords

- A separate bio-bibliographical note (50–100 words)

 

Please submit two separate documents (in MS Word or PDF format). Papers may be written in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. Submissions should be sent to:

Fernando Silva: fernandomsilva@campus.ul.pt

Marita Rainsborough: marita.rainsborough@leuphana.de

Paulo Jesus: paulorenatus@edu.ulisboa.pt

 

Deadline for submissions: November 30, 2025

Notification of acceptance: December 31, 2025

 

To ensure broad accessibility, participants presenting in languages other than English are kindly asked to provide at least a partial English version of their paper (e.g., handout or PowerPoint). Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, followed by discussion. Each panel will include up to four papers.

 

Participation and attendance are free of charge. Following the conference, we plan to publish a volume featuring selected contributions.

 

Organizing Committee

Chairs

Fernando Silva (CFUL, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Paulo Jesus (CFUL, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Marita Rainsborough (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany, & CFUL, Portugal)

 

Members

Daniela Lima Barros (UFF, Brazil & U. Lisboa, Portugal)

Diogo Sardinha (CFUL, Portugal)

Elisabetta Basso (University of Pavia, Italy)

Leonel Ribeiro dos Santos (CFUL, Portugal) Maura Ceci (CFUL, Portugal)

Ricardo Mendoza-Canales (CFUL, Portugal)

Roberto Nigro (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany)

Rodrigo Castro (Complutense University, Madrid, Spain)

Soraya Nour Sckell (NOVA School of Law, Lisbon, Portugal)

Ubirajara Marques (UNESP, Brazil)

 

Scientific Committee

Arthur Leal Ferreira (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Daniele Lorenzini (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

Edward F. McGushin (Stonehill College, USA)

Frieder Vogelmann (University College Freiburg, Germany)

Gladys Merma-Molina (University of Alicante, Spain)

José Miranda Justo (CFUL, Portugal)

Katrin Meyer (University of Basel, Switzerland)

Leonel Ribeiro dos Santos (CFUL, Portugal)

Marita Rainsborough (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany, & CFUL, Portugal)

Martin Saar (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)

Nuria Sánchez Madrid (Complutense University, Madrid, Spain)

Paulo Jesus (CFUL, Portugal)

Philipp Sarasin (University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Ricardo Mendoza-Canales (CFUL, Portugal)

Roberto Nigro (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany)

Rodrigo Castro (Complutense University, Madrid, Spain)

Samuel Binkley (Emerson College, USA)

Sophie Witt (University of Hamburg, Germany)

Soraya Nour Sckell (NOVA School of Law, Lisbon, Portugal)

Sverre Raffnsøe (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark)

Ubirajara Marques (UNESP, Brazil)

 

Hosting and Organizing Institution

Centre of Philosophy (CFUL) School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Portugal (Centro de Filosofia, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa)

 

Venue address: Faculdade de Letras, Alameda da Universidade, 1600-214 Lisboa

 

Co-organizing Institutions

Alicante University, Education Faculty (Spain)

Centro de Pesquisas e Estudos Kantianos “Valerio Rohden” (CPEK), Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP, Brazil)

Complutense University Madrid (Spain), Departamento de Filosofía y Sociedad

Complutense University Madrid (Spain), Research Group “Normativity, Emotions, Discourse and Society” (GINEDIS)

Complutense University Madrid (Spain), Red Iberoamericana Foucault

Complutense University Madrid (Spain), Seminario Foucault Complutense

Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany), Institute of Philosophy and Art History University of Hamburg (Germany), Institute for Liberal Arts & Sciences