CFP: Foucault and Feminist Philosophy: Other Perspectives and Approaches

This CFA invites abstracts of 750 words (max.) for a peer-reviewed special issue of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly on the theme, “Foucault and Feminist Philosophy: Other Perspectives and Approaches.” The issue will be published in 2026 to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Michel Foucault’s birth on October 15, 1926.

Accepted abstracts must be developed to articles no longer than 9,000 words (excluding bibliography) to be included in the issue. The issue, which will comprise both invited and refereed articles, will be guest-edited by Shelley Lynn Tremain who has written extensively on Foucault, disability, feminism, and biopolitics, and has edited several books and journal issues on these topics.

In the past, many feminist philosophers have ridiculed Foucault and diminished the value of his work for feminist philosophy and transformative movement in philosophy and society more broadly (see Tremain 2013, 2017). Advanced largely by nondisabled and cisheterosexual feminists, this negative feminist attention to Foucault’s writing and public statements often misconstrued them and neglected, if not obscured, his social positioning as a disabled and psychiatrized gay man in philosophy, rendering this social position insignificant and irrelevant to feminist reception of the writing and activism.

“Foucault and Feminist Philosophy: Other Perspectives and Approaches” will comprise articles by authors whose engagement with the texts of Foucault challenges earlier feminist misunderstandings and dismissals of his body of work and public actions. For the guest editor contends that a special issue devoted to marginalized feminist perspectives on, and approaches to, Foucault and his corpus would go some distance to bring to the center of philosophy the perspectives and approaches of Others who find his work enormously insightful and thought-provoking.

In other words, this special issue of FPQ will aim to demonstrate the importance of Foucault’s claims about (among other things) normality, pathology, perversion, sexuality, race, discipline, punishment, and madness for feminist philosophy of disability, 2SLGBTQI+ theory, critical race theory, prison studies, abolition studies, social ontology, methodology, social change and transformation, activism, and Madness studies/Mad philosophy, as well as for understanding mainstream philosophy and academic institutions themselves.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 11:59 pm ET on December 18, 2024.

Submission requirements: Abstracts should be 750 words (max.) and double-spaced in Word. Please submit your abstract as an attachment in an email addressed to [email protected] with the subject line “Foucault 2026.” All enquiries about this special issue should be sent to the same email address with the same subject line.

Notification of acceptance of abstracts to be developed as longer articles that undergo anonymous peer review: January 8, 2025.

Due date for full-length articles prepared for anonymous peer review: October 8, 2025.

Submissions (abstracts and completed articles) must conform with the FPQ submission guidelines that can be found on the journal’s website here: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/fpq/about/submissions.