Dr Philippe Le Goff
Associate Professor
Email: P dot Le-Goff at warwick dot ac dot uk
Fourth Floor, Faculty of Arts Building,
University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
About
After completing doctoral work at Warwick, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. I joined the SMLC as an assistant professor in 2017 and was promoted to associate professor in 2022.
Research interests
I work primarily on modern and contemporary political theory and intellectual history, with a focus on theories of radical humanism, popular empowerment and collective agency. I also have an interest in popular movements and the history of socialism in France and the Francophone world.
I am currently developing a project on theories of anti-colonial humanism in the post-war period. I have also recently written about Chantal Mouffe, Marshall Berman's political philosophy and the place of hip-hop in his work.
My thesis on Auguste Blanqui's political thought largely set the research agenda for the first years of my post-doctoral career. My work of translating, presenting and assessing Blanqui's project resulted in two volumes: my monograph, Auguste Blanqui and the Politics of Popular Empowerment (Bloomsbury); and a co-edited anthology of Blanqui's writings, The Blanqui Reader (Verso). I also co-built an open-access website, The Blanqui Archive, as part of the AHRC-funded 'Blanqui and Political Will' project, based at the CMREP, Kingston University.
Publications
Books
Auguste Blanqui and the Politics of Popular Empowerment (London: Bloomsbury, 2020).
The Blanqui Reader, co-edited with Peter Hallward (London: Verso, 2018).
Articles and Book chapters
'Communism and community', in Delphine Antoine-Mahut & Laurent Fedi (eds.), Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie: 19. Jahrhundert, Französischer Sprachraum (Schwabe Verlag: forthcoming).
'Introduction', in The Blanqui Reader (London: Verso, 2018), xxv-xxxv.
‘Capitalism, Crisis and Critique: Reassessing Régis Debray's 'Modest Contribution' to understanding May 1968 in light of Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello's Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme’, Modern and Contemporary France 22:2 (2014), 231-251.
Essays and other writings
'Auguste Blanqui', in Delphine Antoine-Mahut, Pierre-François Moreau, Renzo Ragghianti & Patrice Vermeren (eds.), Dictionnaire de la philosophie française du XIXe siècle (Classiques Garnier: forthcoming).
'Can articulations save the planet?', European Journal of Political Theory, forthcoming.
'A face in the crowd', Verso Blog, 22 September 2023.
'Soul-making in the throes of suffering', Verso Blog, 21 July 2022.
'Blanqui today?', Verso Blog, 6 May 2022.
'The fall of Napoleon III', Modern History Review, September 2020. Translated into Welsh.
Translations
The Blanqui Reader, co-translated with Peter Hallward and Mitchell Abidor (London: Verso, 2018).
Pascal Severac, ‘Consciousness and Affectivity: Spinoza and Vygotsky’, Stasis 5:2 (2017), 80-109.
Marie Cuillerai and Maria Kakogianni, ‘Bankocracy: Greek Money and the “New Idea” of Europe’, Radical Philosophy 186 (July/August 2014), 23-28.
Daniel Bensaïd and Michael Löwy, ‘Auguste Blanqui, heretical communist’, Radical Philosophy 185 (May/June 2014), 26-35.
Website
Office Hours
By appointment. Please email me in the first instance.
Teaching
Undergraduate modules
FR121 The Story of Modern France
FR201 French Translation
LN211 Introduction to European Political Thought