Frantz Fanon: The Foundations

2025 marked the centenary of Frantz Fanon. At IDCtheory, we engaged the thought of the great revolutionary philosophers on many levels and in many formats, most recently in the extended discussion of his works in our “Theory in the Battlefield” course.

To wrap up this discussion, we want to go back to Fanon's theoretical foundations.

The course convenes on Sundays, 7:00 pm Cairo Time (5:00 pm GMT, 12:00 noon EST), 4-18 Jan.

Over three sessions, we will revisit Frantz Fanon’s psychoanalytic theory—highlighting how he re-configured Freud and Lacan, Frantz Fanon’s theory of recognition – highlighting how he breathed new meaning into the Hegelian dialectic, and ultimately Frantz Fanon’s theory of violence, moving both beyond the academic attempts to sanitize Fanon’s legacy from its involvement in, indeed celebration of revolutionary violence, but also beyond vulgarized conceptions of Fanon as the theorist of pure violence. The crash course will examine the enduring relevance of Fanon’s legacy in today’s world and especially in the world of mass media where cultural imposition takes new forms unimagined by Fanon but still consistent with the socio-psychogenic mechanisms he envisioned. We will also pay special attention to the relevance of Fanon in the age of the US empire and for the current moment of intensified struggle against imperialism on the Palestinian and other forefronts of the struggle.

The course welcomes students of all levels, whether you are a seasoned Fanonian or you have never read a word by Fanon.

The course is taught by IDCtheory co-founder Ahmed Diaa Dardir. Ahmed holds a PhD in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies from Columbia University and is currently working on a research project that engages Fanon's thought to spotlight the ideological-psychological battles waged (and largely won) by the Palestinian resistance.