Fanon's Philosophical Legacy: Fanon at 100

2025 marks the centenary year of the birth of Frantz Fanon. Despite Fanon’s enormous influence in postcolonial studies, political thought, the history of Marxism and the humanities more widely, the specifically philosophical significance of his works is less commonly recognized.

This significance can be borne out in two broad forms. First, his contributions bear upon the traditions of European thought to which he belongs, and the concepts from which he adapts within his own works. For instance, he offers modifications to important concepts found in the works of Hegel and Nietzsche predominantly, but also engages with Merleau-Ponty, Bergson, Césaire, Freud, Adler, Beauvoir, and Sartre.
Second, and less addressed in the scholarship, his works can be taken to offer important contributions in their own right to phenomenology, metaethics, moral psychology, theories of recognition and intersubjectivity, and the philosophy of history, as well as (more obviously) the philosophy of race and political philosophy.

It is the strong expectation of the program committee that a great deal of philosophical attention will be paid to Fanon in the coming years. Thus, it is the ambition of this two-day conference to break ground ahead of this expected increase in attention. The conference will bring into dialogue both senior international scholars whose works on Fanon spans decades, and rising stars engaging in fruitful early career research.

The event will also be the launch of an interdisciplinary research centre tentatively called the Birkbeck Centre for Fanon Studies and Decolonial Research. 

Speakers (listed alphabetically by last name): 
Norman Ajari (University of Edinburgh)
Robert Bernasconi (Pennsylvania State University)
Richard Elliott (Birkbeck, University of London)
Jane Anna Gordon (University of Connecticut)
Lewis R. Gordon (University of Connecticut)
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (Birkbeck, University of London)
Kojo Koram, (Birkbeck, University of London)
Daniele Lorenzini, (University of Pennsylvania)
Lucie K. Mercier (University of Fribourg)
Marie Wuth (University of Hamburg)

The committee aims to include an additional two presenters selected via review process, Please see the Call For Papers at the top of this page.

To register, please provisionally email [email protected] with your name, institutional affiliation (where applicable), and preferred contact email

Questions can be directed to the Chair of the Program Committee, Richard Elliott (Birkbeck, University of London) at [email protected] 

Program Committee:
Richard Elliott (Lecturer in Philosophy, Birkbeck)
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (Professor of Law and Political Philosophy, Birkbeck)
Noemi Magnani (Lecturer in Philosophy, Birkbeck/Hertfordshire)

This event as part of the 'Fanon at 100' Project is organized under the auspices of the Birkbeck Centre for Philosophical Research in the School of Historical Studies, and the Birkbeck Faculty of Business and Law. The event receives generous external funding from the British Society for the History of Philosophy, and from The Aristotelian Society. The event is supported by the Institute of Philosophy, as part of the School of Advanced Studies.