Foucault and Critical Theory: Limits, Conditions, and Liberations

Martin Saar is a professor of social philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and currently serves as vice dean of research for the Faculty of Philosophy and History. His academic interests include contemporary political and social philosophy as well as the history of political thought, with a particular focus on the history of Marxism, Critical Theory, and 20th-century French philosophy. He has published books in German on Nietzsche and Foucault (2007), on Spinoza’s political thought (2013), and on social philosophy (2025).

Chair: Patrick Boucheron, Collège de France

Patrick Boucheron is a historian specializing in medieval Italy, particularly urban and architectural history. He is a professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of the History of Power in Western Europe, 13th–16th Centuries. His work has focused in particular on the concepts of communal experimentation and political fictions, from a Foucauldian perspective. His books include The Power of Images, Siena 1338 (2018), Political Fictions: From the Middle Ages to the “Post-Truth” Present (2025), and The Black Death (2026).