After studying at the the University of Paris-Sorbonne and the Ecole Normale Supérieure at Fontenay Saint-Cloud, I passed the "agrégation" of Philosophy and wrote my PhD at the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes under the supervision of Jacques Derrida. I then became a Maître de Conférences at the University of Paris-Nanterre. I was appointed as a professor of philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University in 2011. In 2016, I was appointed at the University of California at Irvine in Comparative Literature and European Languages and Studies. This one semester chair is the one previously attributed to Jacques Derrida.
Visiting Professor in Modern European Philosophy
For many years now, I have explored the concept of plasticity. Starting with the philosophy of Hegel (Hegel is the first philosopher to confer plasticity the diginity of a concept), I then extended my research to contemporary neurobiology, in which plasticity is a central concept. Neural plasticity designates the ability of the brain to shape iself under the influence of experience, education and culture, but also of accidents and trauma. In my book The New Wounded, I proposed a rereading of Freud in the light of the most recent neuro-psychoanalytic studies an redefinition of traumatic events.
More recently, I was interested in speculative realism and wrote book (After Tommorrow, Epigenesis and Rationality, 2016). My last book (Columbia UP, 2019) is Morphing Intelligence, From IQ Measurement to Artificial Brains.
Malabou, Catherine (2022) Effective altruism in between right-wing and left-wing anarchisms. Telos, 2022(198), pp. 9-22. ISSN (print) 0090-6514
Malabou, Catherine (2022) Nowe kierunki w heglizmie. Rozmowa z Catherine Malabou = Interview with Catherine Malabou : new directions in Hegelianism. Praktyka Teoretyczna(2(44)), pp. 73-86. ISSN (print) 2081-8130
Malabou, Catherine (2021) To quarantine from quarantine : Rousseau, Robinson Crusoe, and “I”. Critical Inquiry, 47(S2), S13-S16. ISSN (print) 0093-1896
Malabou, Catherine (2020) Earning to give. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 31(3), pp. 12-20. ISSN (print) 1040-7391
Malabou, Catherine and Shread, Carolyn [Translator] (2018) The animal rationale that is Jacques Derrida : a response to "Of Biodeconstruction". Postmodern Culture, 29(1), ISSN (online) 1053-1920
Malabou, Catherine (2017) The brain of history or the mentality of the Anthropocene. SAQ : South Atlantic Quarterly, 116(1), pp. 39-53. ISSN (print) 0038-2876
Malabou, Catherine (2016) Philosophers, Biologists, Philosophers, Biologists: Some More Effort If You Wish to Become Revolutionaries! Response to Norman MacLeod. Critical Inquiry, 43(1), pp. 200-206. ISSN (print) 0093-1896
Malabou, Catherine (2016) Before and above : Spinoza and symbolic necessity. Critical Inquiry, 43(1), pp. 84-109. ISSN (print) 0093-1896
Malabou, Catherine (2015) L'intelligence des ordinateurs. Art Press(39), pp. 213-216. ISSN (print) 0245-5676
Malabou, Catherine (2015) One life only: Biological resistance, political resistance. Critical Inquiry, ISSN (online) 1539-7858
Malabou, Catherine and Wasserman, Dashiell [Translator] (2015) The Crowd. Oxford Literary Review, 37(1), pp. 25-44. ISSN (print) 0305-1498
Malabou, Catherine (2015) Une seule vie : resistance biologique, resistance politique. Esprit(1), pp. 30-40. ISSN (print) 0014-0759
Malabou, Catherine (2015) Phantom limbs and plasticity : Merleau-Ponty and current neurobiology. Chiasmi International, 17, pp. 41-52. ISSN (print) 1637-6757
Malabou, Catherine (2014) Sujet : femme. De(s)générations(21), pp. 29-42. ISSN (print) 1778-0845
Malabou, Catherine (2014) Is retreat a metaphor? Public, 25(50), pp. 35-42. ISSN (print) 0845-4450
Malabou, Catherine (2014) Can we relinquish the transcendental? The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 28(3), pp. 242-255. ISSN (print) 0891-625X
Malabou, Catherine (2014) The king’s two (biopolitical) bodies. Representations, 127(1), pp. 98-106. ISSN (print) 0734-6018
Agnew, Eadaoin, Alliez, Eric, Auerbach, Paul, Blackburn, Robert, Botting, Fred, Brady, Mary, Caygill, Howard, Chadwick, Howard, Chanter, Tina, Choat, Simon, Chu, Jonathan, Cinpoes, Radu, Coultas, Valerie, Dines, Martin, Dixon, Paul, Favretto, Ilaria, Finn, Peter, Giaxoglou, Korina, Goldsmith, Carlie, Hallward, Peter, Hawkins, Sue, Haywood, Peter, Higginbottom, Andrew, Ichijo, Atsuko, Isaac, Marina, Jensen, Meg, Kayyali, Reem, Kettyle, Ann, Lambrou, Marina, Latimer, Amanda, Linton, Marisa, Lipsedge, Karen, Malabou, Catherine, O Maoilearca, John, McQuillan, Martin, Micklethwaite, Paul, Morgan Wortham, Simon, O'Brien, Catherine, Osborne, Peter, Pinnock, Winsome, Piper, Jason, Ponto, Maria, Raphael, Sam, Reid, Trish, Roberts, Mike, Rogers, David, Sandford, Stella, Searby, Michael, Siddiki, Jalal Uddin, Smart, Jackie, Spencer, Philip, Stockhammer, Engelbert, Stuart, John, Suess, Eleanor, Swift, Allan, Upstone, Sara, Vallee-Tourangeau, Frederic, Wells, Julian and Wilson, Scott (2014) Education should be a right for all. The Guardian,
Malabou, Catherine and Ziarek, Ewa Plonowska (2012) Negativity, unhappiness or Felicity: on Irigaray's dialectical culture of sexual difference. L'Esprit Createur: a critical quarterly of French literature, 52(3), pp. 11-25. ISSN (print) 0014-0767
Malabou, Catherine (2011) Souffrance cerebrale, souffrance psychique et plasticite. Etudes: revue de culture contemporaine, 414(4), pp. 487-498. ISSN (print) 0014-1941
Malabou, Catherine (2011) Like a sleeping animal: philosophy between presence and absence. Inaesthetics(2), pp. 79-89.
Malabou, Catherine (2010) Modification in being and time, or the form of difference. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 31(2), ISSN (print) 0093-4240
Malabou, Catherine (2010) Qué es formar el cuerpo? Papel Maquina: revista de cultura(5), pp. 31-36. ISSN (print) 0718-6576
Malabou, Catherine (2009) How is subjectivity undergoing deconstruction today? Philosophy, auto-hetero-affection, and neurobiological emotion. Qui Parle, 17(2), pp. 111-122. ISSN (print) 1041-8385
Malabou, Catherine and Vahanian, Noelle [Interviewer] (2008) A Conversation With Catherine Malabou. Journal For Cultural And Religious Theory, 9(1), ISSN (online) 1530-5228
Malabou, Catherine (2007) Plasticity and elasticity in Freud's beyond the pleasure principle. diacritics, 37(4), pp. 78-86. ISSN (print) 0300-7162
Malabou, Catherine (2001) History and the process of mourning in Hegel and Freud. Radical philosophy(106), pp. 15-20. ISSN (print) 0300-211X
Malabou, Catherine (2019) Morphing intelligence : from IQ measurement to artificial brains. New York : Columbia University Press. 224p. (The Wellek Library Lectures) ISBN 9780231187367 (In Press)
Malabou, Catherine (2017) Metamorphoses de l'intelligence : que faire de leur cerveau bleu? Paris, France : Presses Universitaires de France. 184p. ISBN 9782130796084
Malabou, Catherine and Shread, Carolyn [Translator] (2016) Before tomorrow : epigenesis and rationality. Polity Books. 224p. ISBN 9780745691503
Malabou, Catherine (2014) Avant demain: épigenèse et rationalité. Paris, France : Les Presses Universitaires de France. 337p. ISBN 9782130630456
Johnston, Adrian and Malabou, Catherine (2013) Self and emotional life: philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience. New York, U.S. : Columbia University Press. 304p. ISBN 9780231158312
Malabou, Catherine and Shread, Carolyn [Translator] (2012) Ontology of the accident: an essay on destructive plasticity. Cambridge, U.K. : Polity Books. 152p. ISBN 9780745652603
Malabou, Catherine and Miller, Steven [Translator] (2012) The new wounded, from neurosis to brain damage. Bronx, USA : Fordham University Press. 288p. ISBN 9780823239672
Malabou, Catherine and Shread, Carolyn [Translator] (2011) Changing Difference, The Feminine And The Question Of Philosophy. Cambridge UK : Polity Books. 180p. ISBN 9780745651095
Malabou, Catherine and Skafish, Peter [Translator] (2011) The Heidegger change. On the fantastic in philosophy. New York, U.S.A. : SUNY Press. 224p. (SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought) ISBN 9781438439556
Malabou, Catherine (2011) La Plasticidad en Espera. Santiago de Chile : Palinodia. 103p. (Archivo Feminista) ISBN 9789568438296
Malabou, Catherine (2010) Plasticity at the dusk of writing: dialectic, destruction, deconstruction. New York, U.S.A. : Columbia University Press. 96p. (Insurrections) ISBN 9780231145244
Malabou, Catherine and Butler, Judith (2010) Sois mon corps: Une lecture contemporaine de la domination et de la servitude chez Hegel. Paris, France : Bayard Jeunesse. 126p. ISBN 9782227481442
Malabou, Catherine and Emmanuelli, Xavier (2009) La Grande Exclusion. L'Urgence Sociale : Therapeutique et Symptomes. Paris, France : Bayard Publishing. 250p. (Essais documents divers) ISBN 9782227479159
Malabou, Catherine (2009) La chambre du milieu: de Hegel aux neurosciences. Paris, France : Hermann. ISBN 9782705667795
Malabou, Catherine and Rand, Sebastian [Translator] (2008) What should we do with our brain ? New York, U.S. : Fordham University Press. (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
Malabou, Catherine (2005) The future of Hegel: plasticity, temporality, and dialectic. New York, U.S.A. : Routledge. 242p. ISBN 9780415287203
Malabou, Catherine, Derrida, Jacques and Wills, David [Translator] (2004) Counterpath: traveling with Jacques Derrida. Stanford, U.S. : Stanford University Press. 330p. ISBN 0804740410
Balibar, Étienne and Malabou, Catherine (2022) Anarchism, philosophy and the state today : a conversation. In: UNSPECIFIED, (ed.) Afterlives : transcendentals, universals, others. Kingston upon Thames, U.K. : CRMEP Books. pp. 163-186. (CRMEP Books, 4) ISBN 9781999333782
Malabou, Catherine (2022) Cynicism and anarchism in Foucault’s last seminars. In: Osborne, Peter, (ed.) Afterlives : transcendentals, universals, others. Kingston upon Thames, U.K. : CRMEP Books. pp. 146-162. (CRMEP Books, 4) ISBN 9781999333782
Malabou, Catherine (2022) Otherness as a kind of being : a reading of Plato’s Sophist. In: Osborne, Peter, (ed.) Afterlives : transcendentals, universals, others. Kingston upon Thames, U.K. : CRMEP Books. pp. 133-145. (CRMEP Books, 4) ISBN 9781999333782
Malabou, Catherine (2018) Is psychic phylogenesis only a phantasy? New biological developments in trauma inheritance. In: Sharvit, Gilad and Feldman, Karen S., (eds.) Freud and monotheism : Moses and the violent origins of religion. New York, U.S. : Fordham University Press. pp. 177-198. ISBN 9780823280025
Malabou, Catherine (2017) "Idealism": a new name for metaphysics : Hegel and Heidegger on a priori synthesis. In: Gabriel, Markus and Rasmussen, Anders Moe, (eds.) German idealism today. Berlin, Germany : Walter de Gruyter. pp. 189-202. ISBN 9783110500288
Malabou, Catherine (2017) Power and performance at play : a question of life or death. In: Street, Anna , Alliot, Julien and Pauker, Magnolia, (eds.) Inter views in performance philosophy: crossings and conversations. London, U.K. : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 127-138. (Performance philosophy) ISBN 9781349951918
Malabou, Catherine (2017) Transcendental epigenesis. In: Morgan, Anthony, (ed.) The Kantian catastrophe? : conversations on finitude and the limits of philosophy. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, U.K. : Bigg Books. pp. 239-252. ISBN 9781999841300
Malabou, Catherine (2013) Go wonder: subjectivity and affects in neurobiological times. In: Johnston, Adrian and Malabou, Catherine, (eds.) Self and emotional life: philosophy, psychoanalysis, and neuroscience. New York, U.S. : Columbia University Press. pp. 1-72. ISBN 9780231158312
Malabou, Catherine (2012) Post-trauma: towards a new definition? In: Cohen, Tom, (ed.) Telemorphosis: Theory in the Era of Climate Change. Michigan, U.S.A. : Open Humanities Press. pp. 226-238. (Critical Climate Change, 1) ISBN 9781607852377
Malabou, Catherine (2011) Is confession the accomplishment of recognition? Rousseau and the unthought of religion in The Phenomenology Of Spirit. In: Zizek, Slavoj , Crockett, Clayton and Davis, Creston, (eds.) Hegel & the Infinite: Religion, Politics And Dialectic. New York, U.S.A. : Columbia University Press. pp. 19-30. (Insurrections) ISBN 9780231143356
Butler, Judith and Malabou, Catherine (2011) You be my body for me: body, shape, and plasticity in Hegel's Phenomenology Of Spirit. In: Baur, Michael and Houlgate, Stephen, (eds.) A companion to Hegel. Oxford, U.K. : Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 611-640. ISBN 140517076X
Malabou, Catherine (2010) De la transparence cerebrale comme eclipse du temps. In: Fleischer, Alain, (ed.) Vitesses Limites. Paris, France : Seuil. (Le genre humain, (49)) ISSN (print) 0293-0277 ISBN 9782021038200
Malabou, Catherine (2010) Le destin social de la selection naturelle: comment choisir sans intention d'eliminer ? In: Prochiantz, Alain, (ed.) Darwin: 200 ans. Paris, France : Odile Jacob - College de France. pp. 227-242. (Travaux du College de France) ISBN 9782738125224
Malabou, Catherine (2010) Trace psychique et trace synaptique parlent-elles la meme langue? In: Magistretti, Pierre and Ansermet, Francois, (eds.) Neurosciences et psychanalyse: une rencontre autour de la singularite. Paris, France : Odile Jacob. pp. 51-72. (College de France) ISBN 9782738124159
Malabou, Catherine (2009) Bouche cousue: de l'homeostasie [With sealed lips. On homeostasis]. In: Pontbriand, Chantal, (ed.) Harun Farocki/Rodney Graham. Paris, France : Blackjack editions. ISBN 9782918063032
Malabou, Catherine (2009) L'eternel retour et le fantome de la difference. In: Pornschlegel, Clemens and Stingelin, Martin, (eds.) Nietzsche und Frankreich. Berlin, Germany : Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110193312
Malabou, Catherine (2009) Swan lake: bleu comme les neurones. In: Bernard, Christian and Davila, Thierry, (eds.) Claude Leveque. Paris, France : Flammarion. pp. 126-133. ISBN 9782080301277
Malabou, Catherine, Carlisle, Clare [Translator] and Sinclair, Mark (2008) Addiction and Grace Preface to Felix Ravaisson's Of Habit. In: Ravaisson, Felix , Carlisle, Clare and Sinclair, Mark, (eds.) Of Habit. London : Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9781847061980
Malabou, Catherine [Interviewee], Deloche, Alain [Interviewee] and Lefay, Philippe [Interviewer] (2017) Alain Deloche et Catherine Malabou : la coeur et le cerveay à l'ouvrage. (Online Interview). (Des mots De Minuit)
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