Michel Foucault, Prisons, and Abolitionism

Bernard E. Harcourt is a political and legal theorist and death penalty litigator. He is the Corliss Lamont Professor of Law and Civil Liberties at Columbia University in New York City and a professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His work focuses on critical theory, punishment practices, and political economy. His most recent books include The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens (2018), Critique & Praxis: A Critical Philosophy of Illusions, Values, and Action (2020), and Cooperation: A Political, Economic, and Social Theory (2023).

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).