François Cusset

A writer and intellectual historian, a translator and columnist, and the former director of the New York-based French Publishers' Agency, François Cusset is currently professor of American Studies at the University of Paris Nanterre. His pioneering work deals with transatlantic intellectual exchange and the larger global dissemination of critical theories at the turn of the new millennium, but also with the ideological conflicts and culture wars tearing at the world's social fabric in an era of new minority struggles and the rise of a populist far-right eager to take power on all continents. Among his most notable books available in English are: French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze & Company Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), The Inverted Gaze: Queering French Literature in America (Arsenal Pulp, 2011), and How the World Swung to the Right: Fifty Years of Counterrevolutions (Semiotext(e)/MIT Press, 2018). His most recent book tackles today's global quarrel over "wokeness". He lives in Paris.

Sessions:

• Civic and Youth Engagement Panel (Friday, April 12 - 5:30 p.m.)

• Agreeing to Disagree in a Democracy (Saturday, April 13 - 3:50 p.m.)