Echoes and Encounters in Central and Eastern Europe
This workshop is coorganised by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the French Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) & the Center for French Culture and Francophone Studies in Poland (CCFEF).
Dates and locations: University of Warsaw Library, room 256, Dobra 56
May 28–29, 2026
Czech Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, Prague 1, room 205/206
June 1, 2026
Language: English
Organizing Committee: Mateusz CHMURSKI, Isabel JACOBS, Jiří RŮŽIČKA, Radosław SZYMAŃSKI, Laurent TATARENKO
See the CfP here.
Program in Warsaw
Thursday, 28 May
9:30h Opening remarks
9:45-10:45 Panel 1: Foucault, Communism(s) and CEE (part I)
chair: Laurent Tatarenko (CNRS / University of Warsaw)
Bartłomiej Błesznowski (University of Warsaw) & Radek Szymanski (University of Warsaw)
Foucault’s Reception in Poland: From an Obscure Historian to a Staple of Humanities
Adam Takács (Eötvös Loránd University)
Faces of Foucault under Hungarian State Socialism: From Distrusted Ideologue to Critical Catalyst
10:45-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Foucault, Communism(s) and CEE (part II)
Jan Bierhanzl (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Pastoral Power and Marxism. Foucault and CEE
Ralf Gisinger (University of Vienna)
The Problem of Naturalization. Double Transference in Marx/Engels and Foucault
Panel discussion
12:30-13:30 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Panel 2: Foucauldian Prisms (part I)
chair: Isabel Jacobs (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Joanna Maria Szumańska (The Royal Lazienki Museum)
The Royal Łazienki – The Other Spaces
Magdalena Nowicka-Franczak (University of Łódź)
Between Truth-Telling and Pseudo-Parrhēsia: The Case of Krzysztof Stanowski and the 2025 Polish Presidential Campaign
15:00-15:15 Coffee break
15:15-16:45h Foucauldian Prisms (part II)
Krešimir Petković (Zagreb University)
Whither Foucault? Experiences of a Croatian Political Scientist
Kamil Lipiński (University of Warsaw)
Building an archive and subjectification in Hungarian prison. The case of Court Record – In Memoriam Péter Mansfeld
Panel discussion
Friday, May 29
9:30-10:30 Panel 3: Biopolitics, power and the state (part I)
chair: Radek Szymanski (University of Warsaw)
Danube Johnson (Independent)
Understanding Poststructural Principles through Foucault’s Evaluation of Soviet Biopolitics
Mikołaj Ratajczak (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Instituting Biopolitics in Central Europe: The Dissemination of the Idea of “Biopolitics” in Germany and former Austro-Hungary in the Interwar Period
10:30-10:45 Coffee break
10:45-12:15 Biopolitics, power and the state (part II)
Philipp Kender (University of Kent)
Cold War Theory? Historicising Foucault’s Analysis of Power
Aziz Ishler (University of Tübingen)
Conceptual Travel and Epistemic Asymmetry: Foucault in Central/Eastern Europe and the Modern Arab World
Panel discussion
12:15-13:30 Lunch
14.00-16.00 Panel 4: Methodological heritages
chair: Jiří Růžička (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Esteban Arellano (Universidad de Guadalajara/ITESO)
Rethinking Foucauldian Methodology through the Politics of Disappearance: From Mexico to Central and Eastern Europe
Krzysztof Tarkowski (CEFRES, Prague)
Foucault’s Early Material Genealogies: Money and the American Turn
Jakub Krzeski (Nicolaus Copernicus University)
Foucault–Kula (Mis)Encounter: Revisiting Historical Metrology through a Genealogical Lens
Panel discussion
16:00-16:15 Coffee break
16:15-16:45 Roundtable discussion and closing remarks
Program in Prague
Monday, June 1
10:00 – Opening remarks
10:15-12:00 Political Poetics: Foucault and Literature
chair: Laurent Tatarenko
Josef Fulka (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Infamia: On the Margins of Czech Literature
Lenka Vojtíšková (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University)
Episteme and Ideologeme: Distance of Vision, Intimacy of Gesture
Jovan Bukumira (Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade)
Early Avant-Garde and Late Foucault
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:45 Archaeologies of Socialism
chair: Isabel Jacobs
Maria Chehonadskih (Queen Mary University of London)
Archaeology of Socialism After Foucault
Jiří Růžička (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
From Avant-Garde Aesthetics to Historical Epistemes: Structuralism and Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge
Alexei Penzin (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
The Post-Soviet Foucault: On Valery Podoroga’s Archaeology of Modernity
14:45-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-16:45 Historical Epistemology after Foucault
chair: Jiří Růžička
Ladislav Kvasz (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Foucault and Kuhn: Deep Similarities and Superficial Differences
Matteo Polleri (Paris Nanterre University)
Foucault with Lukács? History and Class Subjectivation
16:45-17:00 Coffee break
17:00-18:30 Keynote lecture – Didier ERIBON
chair: Mateusz Chmurski
18:00 Screening of the film Return to Reims at Kino 35, Prague 1
Tuesday, June 2
10:00-12:00 Histories of Sexuality and Body Politics
chair: Radoslaw Szymanski
Agnieszka Laddach (University of Warsaw)
Revolt in Historical Research?: Michel Foucault’s Methodological Postulates and Sexual History of the Catholic Church in Poland
Tomáš Hříbek (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Foucault’s Legacy and Contemporary Social Ontology
Rustam Burnashev (Kazakh-German University) and Irina Chernykh (Kazakh-German University)
Michel Foucault’s Dispositif of Security: Quasi-neoliberal States
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:45 Foucault’s “Eastern” Encounters
chair: Jan Mervart
Laura Kladeková (Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences)
How Slovak Philosophy ‘Became Different’ Thanks To Foucault”
Yue Li (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University)
Karel Bartošek and Foucault: Encountering in Exile
Zafar Iqbal (University of Karachi)
Silence and Ajz: Translating Foucault’s Madness and Civilization through Islamic Ontology and CEE Phenomenology
14:45-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-16:30 Foucault and Patočka
chair: Jan Bierhanzl
Ekaterina Shashlova (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University) Phenomenology against Archaeology of Knowledge: Jan Patočka’s Reading of Michel Foucault
Saverio Alessandro Matrangolo (University of Bergamo)
Caring for the Truth. A Comparison between Michel Foucault and Jan Patočka
18:00 Grand entretien with Didier ERIBON at Kino 35, Prague 1
Classes, Identities, Trajectories: Sociobiographical Writing and Political Theory
Moderation: Josef Šebek (Faculty of Arts, Charles University / CEFRES)