09/21/2026
Our RELS event this week is our annual Boardman Symposium! This year we are hosting The Foucault Century, a cross-campus collaboration with a number of other departments.
This event will begin on Thurs., Sept. 24, at 2:30 pm in the Orrery Pavilion (6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center) and continue through the evening and with a full day of panels on Friday, Sept. 25 beginning at 10:00 am. The full schedule is below.
See you Thursday!
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The Foucault Century
2026 Boardman Symposium
Sep 24–25, 2026
Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
Michel Foucault’s influence on contemporary thought is unmatched by any other twentieth-century intellectual. Reputed to be the most widely cited scholar in history, his work has provided a foundational vocabulary in a variety of disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. He remains one of the most widely taught figures in institutions of higher education worldwide. Even where Foucault’s name is no longer invoked, the shaping influence of his corpus has been transformative—even revolutionary.
2026 marks the centennial of Foucault’s birth and the 50-year anniversary of the publication of his landmark History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. The Foucault Century, a symposium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (September 24–25, 2026), offers a renewed assessment of Foucault’s thought.
Forty years after his death, our understanding of Foucault’s scholarship has been enriched and transformed by a wealth of groundbreaking posthumous publications. These include Foucault’s thirteen courses at the Collège de France, lectures and seminars at other institutions around the world from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the fourth volume of History of Sexuality—Confessions of the Flesh. More material is coming out all the time, with Foucault’s 1966–1967 public lectures at the University of Tunis now in press.
The Foucault Century considers the manifold implications of this expanding corpus. And it takes as its premise that the Foucault we already know—or think we know—may need to be reconsidered. What has sometimes been called the “textbook image of Foucault” has become an obstacle to fully grasping the depth, complexity, and tensions of his thought.
The Foucault Century will bring together an international group of Foucault specialists to consider a range of problems in the contemporary assessment of Foucault: What questions are being left unasked in the default interpretation of Foucault that has been passed down? What controversies remain unresolved? Which of Foucault’s many voices and guises can be brought into productive conversation with our contemporary intellectual, political, and cultural controversies? And which need to be criticized or dismantled? Which Foucaults have been remembered? And which have been forgotten and may need to be brought to light again?
Free registration is available here:
https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/foucault-century
Registration is separate for each day. Please register for either or both days you will be attending.
Schedule
September 24
2:30–3:00 – Welcome
3:00–4:15 – Public lecture, "Chez Foucault: Rethinking Foucault through the Archives" (Niki Kasumi Clements)
4:15–4:30 – Break
4:30–6:00 – Session 1 (Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson, Daniele Lorenzini)
6:00–7:00 – Catered dinner
7:00–9:00 – Film screening + discussion
Foucault Against Himself
Foucault: Historian of Truth
September 25
10:00–12:00 – Session 2 (Sabeen Ahmed, Amy Allen, Penelope Deutscher)
12:00–1:15 – Catered Lunch and Viewing of Exhibit
1:15–2:45 – Session 3 (Amy Hollywood, Donovan Schaefer)
2:45–3:00 – Break
3:00–4:30 – Session 4 (David Halperin, Lynne Huffer)
4:30–4:45 – Break
4:45–5:30 – Wrap-up discussion
