Lucile Richard

Dr. Lucile Richard is a queer political theorist specializing in feminist care politics, focusing on systematic forms of abuse and negligence in care reception. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Theory from Sciences Po in 2023 and currently holds positions as an Associate Researcher at their Center for Political Studies (CEVIPOF), as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Basel (Forum Basiliense).

At the intersection of care studies and post-Foucauldian thought, Dr. Richard’s research examines power dynamics inherent in care-receiving, particularly addressing adultism, cisheterosexism, and ableism. She critically analyzes how structural forms of carelessness experienced by care-receivers are politicized in contemporary debates surrounding the "care crisis". Central to her research is the articulation of the relationship between care, resistance, and freedom, countering the cooptation of care ethics and politics terminology by conservative and neoliberal actors.

In her doctoral thesis, Dr. Richard explored the post-Foucauldian critique of care, revealing embedded masculinist biases and examining their implications for theories of resistance and liberatory practices. Her postdoctoral and current research project reinvigorates Foucault’s critical legacy, positing that his genealogical and analytical framework can foster a more inclusive and intersectional understanding of feminist care politics. She shifts the feminist focus from caregivers to care-receivers, developing a blueprint for a new care-centered coalition based on the shared, albeit different, experiences of uncaring that feminized, but also infantilized, queer, and racialized individuals face.

Dr. Richard’s published works center on the concept of care in Foucauldian and post-Foucauldian thought, offering original analyses on Foucault’s concept of “pastoral power” (Foucault Studies, 2024), Judith Butler’s political theory of support and queer perspective on the radical democracy tradition (Raisons Politiques, 2019; Hermann, 2022; Cahiers du Genre, 2023), as well as on Agamben’s antifeminist “politics as intimacy” (SUNY Press, 2024). Her scholarship sheds light on the complexities of care ethics and politics and offers critical insights into challenges faced by marginalized communities within care systems.

Through her interdisciplinary approach, Dr. Richard significantly contributes to contemporary debates in political theory, sexuality and gender studies.