Achille Mbembe awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Paris 8 Vincennes

WISER is delighted to announce that Achille Mbembe has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Paris 8 Vincennes.  

Founded in the aftermath of May 1968 events, Paris 8  played a pivotal role in the emergence of "French Theory" and is renowned for having been the institutional home for some of its most illustrious figures - Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jacques Lacan, Helene Cixous, Gilles Deleuze.

The award forms part of the university's commemoration of the centenary of the start of the First World War - an event that precipitated  global ruptures and major shifts  within established academic disciplines.

Achille Mbembe joined the University of the Witwatersrand in 2001. His latest work Critique de la raison negre (2013) received the 2013 Feltkann Award and has recently been featured in the influential Philosophie Magazine. Translations in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are forthcoming.

Sarah Nuttall, Director of WiSER, and all Achille’s colleagues at the Institute, offer him our warmest congratulations and feel extremely proud of this tremendous recognition of his work.