Category Archives: Theory

Roland Barthes and the Question of Territory – Animals, Spaces and Sound

Posted on January 25, 2026 by stuartelden

Roland Barthes only taught at the Collège de France for a short period, from the 1976-77 academic year until shortly before his premature death in early 1980. I was drawn to his lecture courses there for my current work because he sometimes … Continue reading →

Posted in André Leroi-Gourhan, Boundaries, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Music, Noam Chomsky, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Territory, Theory | Leave a comment

My favourite academic books of 2025

Posted on January 1, 2026 by stuartelden

A list of academic books I liked published in 2025, or late 2024, or in paperback this year. Many of the books I read this year were published years ago; some of the 2025 ones I’ve bought or have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Books, Boundaries, Clémence Ramnoux, Ernst Kantorowicz, Erwin Panofsky, Gaston Bachelard, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Georges Bataille, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu, Theory, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

My favourite academic books of 2024

Posted on December 31, 2024 by stuartelden

At the end of each year I’ve posted a list of academic books I liked. The criteria was that they were published in that year (or late the previous one), and that I read and liked them. Many of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Eduardo Mendieta, Fredric Jameson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gillian Rose, Karl Marx, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Stefanos Geroulanos, Territory, Theory, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Terrains and Territories – Stuart Elden and Nico Buitendag discussion at Undisciplined

Posted on May 4, 2020 by stuartelden

Terrains and Territories – Stuart Elden and Nico Buitendag discussion at Undisciplined Many thanks to Nico for this invitation, and for a wide-ranging discussion that touches on nearly everything I’ve worked on. This is part of a series of discussions … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundaries, Carl Schmitt, Daniel Defert, Edward Soja, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gaston Gordillo, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping the Present, Martin Heidegger, Matthew Hannah, Michel Foucault, Politics, Shakespearean Territories, Slavoj Zizek, Speaking Against Number, terrain, Territory, Terror and Territory, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Birth of Territory, The Early Foucault, Theory, Uncategorized, Understanding Henri Lefebvre, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Historicizing Foucault: Stuart Elden on Tracing Foucault’s Ideas from Discipline and Punish to the History of Sexuality

Posted on April 27, 2020 by stuartelden

Historicizing Foucault: Stuart Elden on Tracing Foucault’s Ideas from Discipline and Punish to the History of Sexuality – part 1 of a longer interview at the Journal of History of Ideas blog, conducted earlier this month. My thanks to Anne … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Theory, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

My favourite academic books of 2017

Posted on December 20, 2017 by stuartelden

  I don’t think I read as many new books this year as previous years, and the ‘to read’ piles get ever higher… But these are the academic books published in 2017 which I particularly liked: Update: the lists for … Continue reading →

Posted in Arlette Farge, Bruno Latour, Caren Kaplan, China Mieville, David Harvey, Ernst Kantorowicz, Eyal Weizman, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Neil Brenner, Politics, Setha Low, Sigmund Freud, Theory, Uncategorized, urban/urbanisation, William E Connolly, Writing | 12 Comments

Danger, Crime and Rights: A 1983 Conversation between Michel Foucault and Jonathan Simon – published in Theory, Culture & Society

Posted on May 11, 2016 by stuartelden

“Danger, Crime and Rights: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Jonathan Simon” has just been published by Theory, Culture and Society (Online First). The discussion from 1983 was previously only available as a recording in the Bancroft library at UC Berkeley. Katie Dingley … Continue reading →

Posted in Foucault's Last Decade, Jonathan Simon, Michel Foucault, Theory, Theory, Culture and Society, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Academic Books of 2015 – my top twenty

Posted on December 31, 2015 by stuartelden

The vast majority of academic reading in 2015 was related to Foucault, with a lot of Shakespeare work along the way. Many of these were published some time ago. These were the twenty books published in 2015 I read and most … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, David Farrell Krell, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Haim Yacobi, Jacques Derrida, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Jenny Edkins, Judith Butler, Michael Dillon, Michel Foucault, Peter Sloterdijk, Politics, Publishing, Roberto Esposito, Theory, Wendy Brown, William Shakespeare | 14 Comments

#AAG2015 in Chicago – a few final thoughts

Posted on April 25, 2015 by stuartelden

Very enjoyable conference in Chicago over the last several days. I’ve said a bit about the two sessions I spoke in – on Ebola and terrain – before. It was a good conference, with some excellent papers. A particular highlight was … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Conferences, Deborah Cowen, Derek Gregory, Events, Jeremy Crampton, Politics, Publishing, Society and Space, Territory, Theory, Travel | Tagged | 1 Comment

Interview with Patricia Owens at E-IR

Posted on February 7, 2015 by stuartelden

Interesting interview with Patricia Owens – author of  Between War and Politics: International Relations and the Thought of Hannah Arendt – at E-IR. Here’s one especially good part: Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in IR at the moment? … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Theory | 2 Comments