Gabriel Rockhill (born 1972) is a French-American philosopher, writer, and cultural critic. He is Professor of Philosophy at

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...

, Director of th
Critical Theory Workshop/''Atelier de Théorie Critique''
and former ''Directeur de programme'' at the ''Collège International de Philosophie''. Best known for his work in the fields of history, aesthetics and politics, he is also a regular contributor to public intellectual debate, and his writings have circulated in venues such as ''CounterPunch'', ''Black Agenda Report'', the ''New York Times, Libération'', and the ''Los Angeles Review of Books''.

Early life and education

As an undergraduate Rockhill attended

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-st ...

in Iowa, graduating in 1995. He then moved to Paris to study philosophy. He earned a master's degree under the direction of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

and

Luce Irigaray Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...

from the

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

, and a Ph.D. under the direction of

Alain Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucau ...

from

Paris 8 University Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution. It is one of the th ...

, where

Étienne Balibar Étienne Balibar (; ; born 23 April 1942) is a French philosopher. He has taught at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, at the University of California Irvine and is currently an Anniversary Chair Professor at the Centre for Research in Modern Eu ...

led the committee for the dissertations evaluation. Rockhill also holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

Work

Academic philosophy

Rather than understanding politics and art as two spheres separated by an insurmountable divide or linked by a privileged bridge, he demonstrates through historical and materialist analysis that they are not fixed categories with a singular relation, but rather social practices and "concepts in struggle." In books like ''Radical History & the Politics of Art'' and ''Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics'', he proposes a departure from extant philosophical debates on what is commonly called "art" and "politics" in the name of a radically historicist analysis of the political dimensions inherent in the modes of production, circulation, and reception of aesthetic practices. Engaging with an array of intellectual, artistic, and political traditions, his work maps interactions between aspects of aesthetic and political practices as they intertwine and sometimes merge in fields of struggle. In his earlier work, ''Logique de l'histoire: pour une analytique des pratiques philosophiques'', he developed an alternative logic of history and historical change that emphasizes the geographic and social dimensions of history, as well as a novel account of social practices and a multidimensional theory of agency. His most recent book, ''Contre-histoire du temps présent: interrogations intempestives sur la mondialisation, la technologie, la démocratie'' expands this work to a critical analysis of the dominant image of the present moment, dismantling what he refers to as the "historical and political imaginary of the contemporary conjuncture."

Critical Theory Workshop

Since 2008, Rockhill has directed th
Critical Theory Workshop/''Atelier de Théorie Critique''
in Paris. Originally conceived as a study abroad program for Villanova University, it currently operates as an independent nonprofit that hosts an annual Summer School at the

Critical theory and the Cold War

In addition to his scholarly publications, Rockhill has written a number of essays of political critiques that tie the United States'

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and other Western capitalist nation-states's security apparatuses to the anti-communist politics of Western intellectual thought, including the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

, and

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

. These online articles for left literary publications have been subject to debate and have been translated into multiple languages.

Selected bibliography

Books

Sole-authored books

*''La CIA et les intellectuels: Une histoire souterraine des idées. De l'école de Francfort aux "nouveaux philosophes"'' (La fabrique éditions, forthcoming). *
Contre-histoire du temps présent: interrogations intempestives sur la mondialisation, la technologie, la démocratie
' (CNRS Éditions, 2017), published in English as
Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy
' (Duke University Press, 2017). *
Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics
'' (Edinburgh University Press, 2016). *
Radical History & the Politics of Art
' (New York: Columbia University Press, Series "New Directions in Critical Theory," 2014), 288 pp. . (pb.) *

'' (Paris: Editions Hermann, series "Hermann Philosophie," 2010), 534 pp. . (pb.)

Edited books

* With Alfredo Gomez-Muller, in collaboration with

Seyla Benhabib Seyla Benhabib ( born September 9, 1950) is a Turkish-American philosopher. Seyla Benhabib is a senior research scholar and adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Columbia University Depar ...

Nancy Fraser Nancy Fraser (; born May 20, 1947) is an American philosopher, critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City.Jadžić, Milo� ...

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...

Immanuel Wallerstein Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his worl ...

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and ...

Will Kymlicka William Kymlicka (; born 1962) is a Canadian political philosopher best known for his work on multiculturalism and animal ethics. He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University ...

Michael Sandel Michael Joseph Sandel (; born March 5, 1953) is an American political philosophy, political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, where his course Justice was the unive ...

and

Axel Honneth Axel Honneth (; ; born 18 July 1949) is a German philosopher who is the Professor for Social Philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the department of philosophy at Columbia University. ...

:
Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues
' (New York: Columbia University Press, Series "New Directions in Critical Theory," 2011), 240 pp. . (pb.) ** French edition (slightly different): ''Critique et subversion dans la pensée contemporaine américaine: Dialogues'' (Paris: Editions du Félin, 2010). ** Spanish edition (slightly different): ''La teoría crítica en Norteamérica: Política, ética y actualidad'' (Medellín: La Carreta Editores, 2008). * With Pierre-Antoine Chardel:
Technologies de contrôle dans la mondialisation: enjeux politiques, éthiques et esthétiques
' (Paris: Editions Kimé, 2009), 207 pp. . (pb.) * With Philip Watts:
Jacques Rancière: History, Politics, Aesthetics
' (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2009), 368 pp. . (pb.)

Edited translations

* With John V. Garner:

Cornelius Castoriadis Cornelius Castoriadis ( el, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης; 11 March 1922 – 26 December 1997) was a Greek-FrenchMemos 2014, p. 18: "he was ... granted full French citizenship in 1970." philosopher, social critic, economist, p ...

''Postscript on Insignificance''
': Dialogues with Cornelius Castoriadis'' (London: Continuum Books, 2011). *

Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière (; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring '' ...

''The Politics of Aesthetics''
(London: Continuum Books, 2004).

Articles

Journal articles

Public essays

*
Capitalism’s Court Jester: Slavoj Žižek
" ''CounterPunch'', January 3, 2023. *
The CIA & The Frankfurt School's Anti-Communism
"''The Philosophical Salon'', June 27, 2022, *
Foucault, Anti-Communism & the Global Theory Industry: A Reply to Critics
" ''The Philosophical Salon'', February 1, 2021. *
Foucault: The Faux Radical
"''The Philosophical Salon'', October 12, 2020.
Who’s Afraid of Direct Action on Campus? Mobilizing Pedagogy Against the Powerful
''Truthout'', August 23, 2017. *
The CIA Reads French Theory: On the Intellectual Labor of Dismantling the Cultural Left
" ''The Philosophical Salon'', February 28, 2017. * *

References

External links

Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rockhill, Gabriel Living people Grinnell College alumni Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni Emory University alumni Villanova University faculty Critical theorists French–English translators 1972 births