François Cusset

FRANÇOIS CUSSET is an intellectual historian and author based in Paris. He is particularly interested in the history of the humanities and of critical theories, as well as transatlantic cultural and intellectual transfers.

François is Professor of American Civilization at the University of Nanterre, where he teaches on topics such as US politics, media, and intellectual currents. He has worked as Associate Researcher at the CNRS (Laboratoire “Communication et politique”) and as Professor at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris. A former director of the Bureau du Livre Français in New York, François has also initiated the “Penser/Croiser” collection of essays published by Les Prairies Ordinaires.

François’ publications include the books French Theory: Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Cie et les mutations de la vie intellectuelle aux États-Unis (2003, English translation 2008), La décennue : Le grand cauchemar des années 1980 (2006), Le déchainement du monde : Logique nouvelle de la violence (2018), and Génie du confinement (2021). His much-discussed essay, La Droitisation du monde (2016), was translated into English in 2018 under the title How the World Swung to the Right.

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