Stuart Elden

@stuartelden
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1,040 Posts

Professor of Political Theory and Geography, University of Warwick

Interested in French theory, territory, Shakespeare.

In 2023 I completed a four-volume intellectual history of Foucault's entire career with Polity Books.
https://www.politybooks.com/author-books?author_slug=10023

In 2022 I began a new project on Indo-European thought in twentieth-century France - more at https://progressivegeographies.com/future-projects/indo-european-thought-in-twentieth-century-france/

Warwick websitehttps://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/elden/
Progressive Geographies blog & websitehttps://progressivegeographies.com
Polity books author pagehttps://www.politybooks.com/author-books?author_slug=stuart-elden
University of Chicago press author pagehttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/E/S/au15506918.html
I'm going to try to write a bit more for my blog in 2025, rather than just post about other people's work and occasional updates on my research. Here's the first piece, with more to follow. "Benveniste, Dumézil, Lejeune and the decipherment of Linear B"
https://progressivegeographies.com/2025/01/05/benveniste-dumezil-lejeune-and-the-decipherment-of-linear-b/
Benveniste, Dumézil, Lejeune and the decipherment of Linear B

In April 1956, at Gif-sur-Yvette just outside of Paris, the first meeting of the International Colloquium on Mycenaean texts took place. The proceedings of the conference, edited by Miche…

Progressive Geographies

The music I enjoyed this year, either bought in physical form, often through Burning Shed, or digitally through bandcamp.

https://progressivegeographies.com/2024/12/25/my-favourite-music-of-2024/

My favourite music of 2024

The music I enjoyed this year, either bought in physical form, often through Burning Shed, or digitally through bandcamp. 212°, Transmissions Anchor & Burden, Extinction Lev…

Progressive Geographies
I’ve shared this before, but was thinking again about Daniel Defert’s memories of Foucault’s working routines in an interview - "Christmas day without writing, that was impossible!" .https://progressivegeographies.com/2024/12/25/foucaults-christmas-2/
Foucault’s Christmas

I’ve shared this before, but was thinking again about Daniel Defert’s memories of Foucault’s working routines in this interview – ‘The Materiality of a Working Life&#8…

Progressive Geographies

For anyone interested in my Mapping Indo-European thought in twentieth-century France project, there is a new research update here - https://progressivegeographies.com/2024/12/20/indo-european-thought-in-twentieth-century-france-update-25-benvenistes-teaching-a-talk-at-st-andrews-tzvetan-todorov-roman-jakobson-and-some-archival-work-in-paris-and-oxford/

I talk about Benveniste’s teaching, a talk at St Andrews, Tzvetan Todorov, Roman Jakobson, and doing some archival work in Paris and Oxford

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 25: Benveniste’s teaching, a talk at St Andrews, Tzvetan Todorov, Roman Jakobson, and some archival work in Paris and Oxford

Basement of the Taylorian, Oxford I’m overdue an update on this project, but while I’ve been working hard, I haven’t felt there has been much to say until now. I’ve also had some further health pro…

Progressive Geographies
Florian Illies, The Magic of Silence: Caspar David Friedrich's Journey Through Time, trans. Tony Crawford, Polity, November 2024
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-magic-of-silence-caspar-david-friedrichs-journey-through-time--9781509567546
Juliet Fall, Bornées: Une histoire illustrée de la frontière - Metis, November 2024
https://metasbooks.fr/book/9782940711499-bornees
Some sample pages of this remarkable work can be seen at Calamēo
https://www.calameo.com/read/004309853640eb43f2153?authid=jB2HcaoPc0eJ
An English edition is forthcoming.
Juliet Fall - Bornées - METIS

Bornées. Une histoire illustrée de la frontière raconte la frontière franco-suisse en bande dessinée. L’initiative de cette recherche<br>s’enracine dans le contexte très particulier de la pandémie de Covid-19, ayant pour conséquence une fermeture des frontières à l’échelle internationale et un boulversement instantanée du<br>quotidien des territoires frontaliers.<br>L’auteure, accompagnée de sa famille, décide alors de partir à vélo sur les traces physiques de la frontière qui sépare le Canton de Genève de la France, étapes par étapes, de bornes en bornes. Cette quête est également l’occasion de revenir sur l’histoire de cette limite, tantôt flagrante, tantôt invisible, aux multiples évolutions grâce notamment à l’analyse d’un riche corpus d’images et de cartographies d’archives. Ce fil rouge historique permet à Juliet Fall de questionner l’impact de la pandémie sur nos modes de vie et notre rapport aux territoires.<br>Tout au long de son livre, l’auteure dévoile ainsi les petits et grands efforts déployés depuis deux siècles pour fabriquer et maintenir un territoire national. Il s’agit là d’un inédit au sein de la collection vuesDensemble et plus largement pour MetisPresses: véritable essai graphique,<br>s’appuyant sur une méthode de recherche récente issue des graphic and cultural studies. Cette bande dessinée est le résultat d’un traitement graphique spécifique: l’auteure a ainsi réalisé une campagne photographie exhaustive, qu’elle a ensuite transformé en dessin puis colorisé. De même, Juliet Fall a créé une police calligraphique originale à partir de sa propre écriture. Le défi relevé par MetisPresses est donc de valoriser ce rendu de recherche en l’insérant dans une collection bien établie, tout en conservant la personnalité d’écriture de l’auteure.

Lynne Huffer, These Survivals: Autobiography of an Extinction - Duke University Press, May 2025
https://www.dukeupress.edu/these-survivals
Raluca Grosescu and Ned Richardson-Little (eds.), Socialism and International Law: The Cold War and its Legacies - Oxford University Press, December 2024
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/socialism-and-international-law-9780198920175?lang=en&cc=de#
Rethinking Global History

Cambridge Core - Global History - Rethinking Global History

Cambridge Core

Nikolina Bobic & Farzaneh Haghighi (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume II: Ecology, Social Participation and Marginalities – Routledge, November 2024
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003112471/routledge-handbook-architecture-urban-space-politics-volume-ii-nikolina-bobic-farzaneh-haghighi

The Introduction available open access. Vol I published in 2022.

The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volu

Architecture and the urban are connected to challenges around violence, security, race and ideology, spectacle and data. The first volume of this handbook

Taylor & Francis