Gabriel Rockhill

Gabriel Rockhill (born 1972) is a French-American philosopher, writer, cultural critic and activist. He is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University,^[1] Founder and Director of the Critical Theory Workshop/Atelier de Théorie Critique, and former Directeur de programme at the Collège International de Philosophie.^[2]

Best known for his innovative scholarly work in the fields of history, aesthetics and politics, he is also a regular contributor to public intellectual debate, and his writings have circulated widely in venues such as CounterPunch, Black Agenda Report, the New York Times, Libération and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Early life[]

Gabriel Rockhill graduated from Grinnell College in 1995.^[3] He earned a master's degree under the direction of Jacques Derrida and Luce Irigaray from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and a Ph.D. under the direction of Alain Badiou from Paris 8 University, as well as a Ph.D. from Emory University.^[3]

Work[]

Rockhill has advanced a new model for thinking the historical relationship between art and politics. Rather than understanding them as two spheres separated by an insurmountable divide or linked by a privileged bridge, he demonstrates through historical and materialist analysis that they are not fixed entities with a singular relation, but rather social practices and "concepts in struggle." In books like Radical History & the Politics of Art (Columbia University Press, 2014) and Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), he proposes a significant departure from extant philosophical debates on what is commonly called "art" and "politics" in the name of a radically historicist analysis of the political dimensions inherent in the modes of production, circulation and reception of aesthetic practices. Engaging with a diverse array of intellectual, artistic, and political traditions, his work carefully maps interactions between different aspects of aesthetic and political practices as they intertwine and sometimes merge in specific fields of struggle.

In his earlier work, Logique de l'histoire: pour une analytique des pratiques philosophiques (Éditions Hermann, 2010), he developed an alternative logic of history and historical change, which emphasizes the geographic and social dimensions of history, as well as a novel account of social practices and a multidimensional theory of agency. His most recent book, Contre-histoire du temps présent: interrogations intempestives sur la mondialisation, la technologie, la démocratie (CNRS Éditions, 2017; published in English as Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy, Duke University Press, 2017) expands this work to a critical analysis of the dominant image of the present moment, thereby dismantling what he refers to as the "historical and political imaginary of the contemporary conjuncture."

In addition to his scholarly publications, Rockhill has written a number of literary pieces and political essays that have circulated widely and been translated into multiple languages, including widely discussed articles like "The CIA Reads French Theory" in the L.A. Review of Books.

Bibliography[]

Books[]

• La CIA et les intellectuels: Une histoire souterraine des idées. De l'école de Francfort aux "nouveaux philosophes" (La fabrique éditions, forthcoming).
• Contre-histoire du temps présent: interrogations intempestives sur la mondialisation, la technologie, la démocratie (CNRS Éditions, 2017), published in English as Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy (Duke University Press, 2017).
• Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics (Edinburgh University Press, 2016).
• Radical History & the Politics of Art (New York: Columbia University Press, Series "New Directions in Critical Theory," 2014), 288 pp. ISBN 978-0-231-15201-3. (pb.)^[4]
• Logique de l’histoire: Pour une analytique des pratiques philosophiques (Paris: Editions Hermann, series "Hermann Philosophie," 2010), 534 pp. ISBN 978-2-7056-6965-2. (pb.)^[5]

Edited books[]

• With Alfredo Gomez-Muller, in collaboration with Seyla Benhabib, Nancy Fraser, Judith Butler, Immanuel Wallerstein, Cornel West, Will Kymlicka, Michael Sandel and Axel Honneth: Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues (New York: Columbia University Press, Series "New Directions in Critical Theory," 2011), 240 pp. ISBN 978-0-231-15187-0. (pb.)
  • French edition (slightly different): Critique et subversion dans la pensée contemporaine américaine: Dialogues (Paris: Editions du Félin, 2010).
  • Spanish edition (slightly different): La teoría crítica en Norteamérica: Política, ética y actualidad (Medellín: La Carreta Editores, 2008).
• With Pierre-Antoine Chardel: Technologies de contrôle dans la mondialisation: enjeux politiques, éthiques et esthétiques (Paris: Editions Kimé, 2009), 207 pp. ISBN 978-2-84174-499-2. (pb.)
• With Philip Watts: Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2009), 368 pp. ISBN 978-0-8223-4506-0. (pb.)

Edited translations[]

• With John V. Garner: Cornelius Castoriadis. Postscript on Insignificance: Dialogues with Cornelius Castoriadis (London: Continuum Books, 2011).
• Jacques Rancière. The Politics of Aesthetics (London: Continuum Books, 2004).

Select scholarly articles[]

• “Toward a Compositional Model of Ideology: Materialism, Aesthetics and Social Imaginaries.” Co-authored with Jennifer Ponce de León. Philosophy Today 64:1 (winter 2020).
• “Foucault, Genealogy, Counter-History.” Theory & Event 23:1 (January 2020): 85-119.
• “Temporal Economies and the Prison of the Present: From the Crisis of the Now to Liberation Time.” Diacritics 47:1 (2019): 16–29.
• “Whitman’s Polyvocal Poetic Revolution: Equality and Empire in New World Literature.” American Literature as World Literature. Ed. J. R. Di Leo. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.
• “Comment penser le temps présent? De l’ontologie de l’actualité à l’ontologie sans l’être.”  Rue Descartes75 (2012/3):  114-126.
• "Recent Developments in Aesthetics: Badiou, Rancière and Their Interlocutors." The History of Continental Philosophy. Ed. Alan Schrift. Vol. 8. Emerging Trends in Continental Philosophy. Ed. Todd May (Durham: Acumen Press, 2010), p. 31–48.
• "A Specter Is Haunting Globalization." Cognitive Architecture: From Bio-politics to Noo-politics. Eds. Deborah Hauptmann and Warren Neidich (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2010), p. 470–487.
• "La Démocratie dans l’histoire des cultures politiques." Jacques Rancière ou la politique à l'œuvre. Eds. Jérôme Game and Aliocha Lasowski (Paris: Editions Archives Contemporaines, Collection "Centre d'Etudes Poétiques," 2009).
• "Le Cinéma n’est jamais né." Le milieu des appareils. Ed. Jean-Louis Déotte (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009), p. 187–211 (also available in the online journal Appareil 1 (2008).^[6]
• "Démocratie moderne et révolution esthétique. Quelques réflexions sur la causalité historique." La philosophie déplacée: Autour de Jacques Rancière. Eds. Laurence Cornu and Patrice Vermeren. Actes du Colloque du Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle (Paris: Horlieu Editions, 2006), p. 335–349.
• "Modernism as a Misnomer: Godard’s Archeology of the Image." Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (2010): 107–129.
• "Le Débat sur le temps présent. Analyse des coordonnées conceptuelles de la controverse postmoderne." Symposium 12:1 (Spring 2008): 126–145.
• "Le Droit de la philosophie et les faits de l’histoire: Foucault, Derrida, Descartes." Le Portique. E-portique 5 – Recherches (December 2007).^[7]
• "L’Ecriture de l’histoire philosophique: L’Eternel retour du même et de l’autre chez Lévinas." Philosophie 87 (fall 2005): 59–77.
• "The Silent Revolution." SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism (special issue on Jacques Rancière) 103, 33:1 (2004): 54–76.

Select journalistic articles[]

• “Liberalism & Fascism: The Good Cop & Bad Cop of Capitalism.” Black Agenda Report (October 21, 2020).
• “The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It.” CounterPunch (October 16, 2020).
• “Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime.” CounterPunch (October 14, 2020).
• “Fascism: Now You See It, Now You Don’t!” CounterPunch (October 12, 2020).
• “Foucault: The Faux Radical.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (October 12, 2020).
• “Understanding France’s General Strike in the Context of the Yellow Vests and Global Class Warfare.” CounterPunch (January 13, 2020).
• “The Failure of the French Intelligentsia? Intellectuals and Uprisings in the Case of the Yellow Vests.” Los Angeles Review of Books, “The Philosophical Salon” (April 29, 2019).
• “Spectacular Violence as a Weapon of War against the Yellow Vests.” CounterPunch (March 22, 2019).
• “The U.S. Is Not a Democracy, It Never Was.” CounterPunch (December 13, 2017).
• “L’Antifa outre-Atlantique.” Mediapart (September 18, 2017).
• Co-authored with Ramona E. Durán. “It’s Time to Get Violence: Breaking Down the Assault on Antifa.” CounterPunch (September 7, 2017).
• Co-authored with John-Patrick Schultz. “Who’s Afraid of Direct Action on Campus? Mobilizing Pedagogy Against the Powerful.” Truthout (August 23, 2017).
• “Free Speech Is Not the Issue; Intellectual Power Is.” CounterPunch (April 5, 2017).
• "The CIA Reads French Theory: On the Intellectual Labor of Dismantling the Cultural Left." Los Angeles Review of Books, "The Philosophical Salon" (February 27, 2017).
• "Unraveling Love Stories." The New York Times, "The Stone" (February 13, 2017).
• "Vive l’anti-colonialisme américain !" Mediapart (December 3, 2016).
• "Why We Never Die." The New York Times, "The Stone" (August 29, 2016).
• "Is Censorship Proof of Art’s Political Power?" Los Angeles Review of Books, "The Philosophical Salon" (June 6, 2016). Forthcoming in Michael Marder and Patricia Vieira, eds., The Philosophical Salon: Speculations, Reflections, Interventions (Open Humanities Press).
• "La France au carrefour du Diable. Ne suivons pas la voie impitoyable des Etats-Unis dans la guerre sans fin." Mediapart (November 21, 2015).
• "L’Amérique en noir et blanc." Libération (June 28, 2015).

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Gabriel Rockhill

• Website
• Academic Profile at Villanova University
• Interview on Fascism on "On Contact with Chris Hedges"
• "The CIA Reads French Theory"
• Research Project at Collège International de Philosophie
• Critical Theory Workshop / Atelier de Théorie Critique
• Works by or about Gabriel Rockhill in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Announcement for Keynote Lecture at NYU
• Lecture on Art and Politics