Françoise Vergès
Françoise Vergès (Reunion Island) is a political theorist, antiracist and decolonial feminist and independent curator. She has written extensively on the afterlives of slavery, South-South solidarities, the decolonization of the public space and of the museum, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, decolonial feminism, the circulation of textiles, ideas and tastes, neoliberalism and the economy of predation. A co-founder of the non-profit Decolonize the Arts (Paris, 2015-2020), she has been convening L’Atelier, a workshop cum public performance with artists and activists of color, she contributes to The Nomad Colony created by artist Kader Attia and organizes decolonial visits in museums. Recent publications: Programme de désordre absolu. Décoloniser le musée (2023), A Feminist Theory of Violence. A Decolonial Perspective (2022), A Decolonial Feminism (2020), De la violence coloniale dans l’espace public (2021), Resolutely Black. Conversations with Aimé Césaire (2019), The Wombs of Women: Race, Capital, Feminism (2020). (2024)
Works[edit]
- De l’Esclave au citoyen (with Philippe Haudrère), Paris: Gallimard, 1998.
- Monsters and Revolutionaries: Colonial Family Romance and Métissage, Duke University Press, 1999. Based on PhD thesis. (English)
- Abolir l'esclavage. Une utopie coloniale, les ambiguïtés d'une politique humanitaire, Paris: Albin Michel, 2001. Publisher.
- Racines et itinéraires de l’unité réunionnaise, La Réunion: Graphica-Région Réunion, 2003.
- Amarres. Créolisations india-océanes (with Jean-Claude Carpanin Marimoutou), Marseille: K'A, 2003, 48 pp; repr., Paris: L’Harmattan, 2005.
- La République coloniale. Essai sur une utopie (with Pascal Blanchard and Nicolas Bancel), Paris: Albin Michel, 2003, 176 pp. Publisher.
- Syokuminchi kyowakoku furansu [植民地共和国フランス], Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2011. (Japanese)
- Nègre, je suis, Nègre je resterai. Entretiens avec Aimé Césaire, Paris: Albin Michel, 2005, 148 pp; new ed., 2024, vi+149 pp. Publisher.
- Niguro to shite ikiru: eme sezēru tono taiwa [ニグロとして生きる: エメ・セゼールとの対話], Tokyo: 法政大学出版局, 2011. (Japanese)
- Na neun heugin ida na neun heugin euro nameul geot ida [나는 흑인이다 나는 흑인으로 남을 것이다 : 에메 세제르와의 대담], Seoul: 그린비, 2016. (Korean)
- Resolutely Black: Conversations with Françoise Vergès, trans. Matthew B. Smith, Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2020, xxiii+93 pp. (English)
- Negro soy negro me quedo, Textos insurgentes, 2020. (Spanish)
- Negro sou, negro serei, Bazar do Tempo, 2024. (Portuguese)
- La Mémoire enchaînée. Questions sur l'esclavage, Paris: Albin Michel, 2006; Paris: Hachette, 2008. Publisher.
- La memoria encadenada: cuestiones sobre la esclavitud, trans. Nathalie Hadj, Rubí: Anthropos, 2010, 161 pp. (Spanish)
- La Colonisation française (with Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard), Toulouse: Milan (Les Essentiels), 2007.
- Ruptures postcoloniales (with Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Achille Mbembe), Paris: La Découverte, 2010.
- L'Homme prédateur, ce que nous enseigne l'esclavage sur notre temps, Paris: Albin Michel (Idées), 2011. Publisher.
- Le Ventre des femmes: capitalisme, racialisation, féminisme, Paris: Albin Michel (Idées), 2017, 230 pp; new ed., 2021, 284 pp. Publisher.
- The Wombs of Women: Race, Capital, Feminism, trans. Kaiama L. Glover, Duke University Press, 2020, 184 pp. Publisher. (English)
- No todas las feministas son blancas, trans. Marta Cerezales Laforet, Luis Martínez Andrade, and Jesús Ortiz, Santander: La Vorágine, 2021, 142 pp. (Spanish)
- Maternica: kapitalizem, rasizacija, feminizem, trans. Sara Fabjan, intro. Blaž. Gselman, Ljubljana: Sophia, 2023, xi+219 pp. (Slovenian)
- Décolonisons les arts! (editor, with Leïla Cukierman and Gerty Dambury), Paris: L'Arche, 2018, 144 pp. Contains a series of artistic and political manifestos about the current ethnic discriminations in the arts and lack of diversity on the stage. Publisher. Review: Kodjo-Grandvaux (Le Monde). (French)
- Un féminisme décolonial, Paris: La Fabrique éditions, Feb 2019, 142 pp. Publisher. (French)
- Un femminismo decoloniale, Verona: Ombre corte, 2020, 115 pp. (Italian)
- Dekolonialer Feminismus, trans. Esther von der Osten, Vienna: Passagen, 2020, 152 pp. Publisher. (German)
- Um feminismo decolonial, trans. Jamille Pinheiro-Dias and Raquel Camargo, São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2020, 140 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
- A Decolonial Feminism, trans. Ashley J. Bohrer and Françoise Vergès, London: Pluto Press, 2021, xvii+110 pp. Publisher. (English)
- Un feminisme descolonial, trans. Anna Lirón Vilaró, Barcelona: Virus, 2022, 119 pp. (Catalan)
- Avkoloniseringsfeminisme, trans. Anders Fjeld, Moss: H//O//F, 2022, 198 pp. (Norwegian)
- Un feminismo descolonial, Madrid: Traficantes de sueños, 2022, 135 pp. (Spanish)
- En dekolonial feminisme, ed. Louise Bundgaard, trans. Katrine Høghøj, afterw. Farhiya Khalid, Copenhagen: Aleatorik, 2023, 166 pp. (Danish)
- "Capitalocene, Waste, Race, and Gender", e-flux 100, May 2019. (English)
- Det kapitalocæne, affald, race & køn, trans. Pil Ingerslev, Laboratoriet for Æstetik og Økologi, 2022. Publisher. (Danish)
- Une théorie féministe de la violence — Pour une politique antiraciste de la protection, Paris: La Fabrique, Nov 2020, 192 pp. Publisher.
- Uma teoria feminista da violência : por uma política antirracista da proteção, trans. Raquel Camargo, São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2021, 158 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
- A Feminist Theory of Violence: A Decolonial Perspective, trans. Melissa Thackway, London: Pluto Press, 2022, viii+146 pp. Publisher. (English)
- Una teoría feminista de la violencia: por una política antirracista de la protección, trans. Ana Useros, Barcelona: Akal, 2022, 172 pp. (Spanish)
- Una teoría feminista de la violència: per una política antiracista de la protecció, trans. Oriol Valls i Fornells, Manresa (Bages): Tigre de Paper, 2022, 115 pp. (Catalan)
- Eine feministische Theorie der Gewalt, trans. Teresa Awa, Vienna: Passagen, 2024, 145 pp. Publisher. (German)
- De la violence coloniale dans l'espace public: visite du triangle de la Porte Dorée à Paris, Paris: Shed publishing, 2021, 191 pp.
- Programme de désordre absolu: décoloniser le musée, Paris: La Fabrique, 2023, 249 pp. A call to end the Western museum. Publisher.
- Decolonizar o museu: programa de desordem absoluta, trans. Mariana Echalar, São Paulo: Ubu, 2023, 268 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
- A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum, forew. Paul Gilroy, trans. Melissa Thackway, London: Pluto Press, Jul 2024, xvi+208 pp. Publisher. (English)
- Programa de desorden absoluto: descolonizar el museo, trans. Francisco López Martín, Ciudad de México: Akal, 2024, 227 pp. (Spanish)
- Für eine Dekolonisierung des Museums, trans. Luca Homburg, Vienna: Passagen, 2025, 296 pp. Publisher. (German)
- Making the World Clean: Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment, and Racial Capitalism, forew. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, London: Goldsmiths Press, 2024, 284 pp. Publisher. (English)