Samuel Buchoul

PhD Candidate
French Philosophy
University of Cambridge

Samuel Buchoul is a doctoral student in the Department of French, University of Cambridge. His project studies how writing has changed us as a species. This question is explored through a dialogue between Derrida’s grammatology and the existential philosophy of Heidegger and Sartre. What he proposes to call an ‘existential grammatology’ would amount to a new understanding of individual empowerment for the challenges of subjectivity today. His articles have been published, or are forthcoming, in journals including Paragraph, Angelaki, Labyrinth and Contagion, and in edited volumes. Samuel is supervised by Prof. Ian James, and advised by Prof. Christina Howells (Oxford). He is also book review editor for Implications Philosophiques. Previously, he taught philosophy in high school, in France (2018-2023). Since the mid 2010s, then in Delhi, India, Samuel has founded several independent organisations offering alternative education and research programmes, including the Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques and the Institute for the Study of Texts. His university training was interdisciplinary, as he studied the social sciences, religion and philosophy, in France, the USA and India.

Mail  ·  CV (EN)  ·  CV (FR)  ·  Online profiles:  University of Cambridge  ·  ORCID  ·  Research Gate  ·  HAL  ·  Google Scholar  ·  PhilPeople  ·  Academia.edu  ·  LinkedIn

Conference presentations & invited talks

Click on each title for more information
‘Derrida lecteur de Sartre : qui ne dit mot consent.’ Séminaire 'Avant/Après Derrida, Lectures de Derrida', ENS, Paris, France (2026)

April 2026

Paper presentation reviewing the trajectory of Derrida's critical mentions of Sartre in his oeuvre, with a special focus on the untranslated Japanese interview of 1987. Séminaire 'Avant/Après Derrida, Lectures de Derrida', ENS, Paris, France.

‘Derrida existentiel : le jeu de l’angoisse-sérénité.’ Colloque 'L’angoisse : de l’expérience à sa médicalisation', Beyrouth, Lebanon (2025)

November 2025

Paper presentation (online) on the relevance of Derrida's supplement to overcome the impasse of angst in existential philosophy. Colloque 'L’angoisse : de l’expérience à sa médicalisation', Beyrouth, Lebanon.

‘Learning to Live as a Trace.’ Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar, Cambridge, UK (2025)

November 2025

Paper presentation on the 'grammatological wisdom' that can be reconstituted from Derrida's differential take on the couple of concept/experiences angst-serenity, in existential philosophy . French Graduate Research Seminar, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

‘Temps et textualité.’ Colloque "À distance et ensemble" Nouvelles perspectives sur Beauvoir et Sartre, Cerisy, France (2025)

July 2025

Paper presentation on the connecting points of the themes of time and textuality, in Sartre, with a special attention to Derridean echoes. Session 'recension des doctorants', colloque "À distance et ensemble" Nouvelles perspectives sur Beauvoir et Sartre, Cerisy, France.

‘‘French thought’ and the pharmakon of relativism.’ Society for French Studies Annual Conference, Bristol, UK (2025)

July 2025

Paper presentation on the challenge and opportunity of relativism in 'French thought', since the 1960s. Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2025, at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

‘A Phenomenology of Writing, after Sartre and Derrida’. Oxford French Graduate Seminar, Oxford, UK (2025)

June 2025

Paper presentation on an attempt at reconstituting a 'phenomenology of writing' from Sartre and Derrida's works. Oxford French Graduate Seminar, University of Oxford, UK.

‘Phenomenology of writing and conditions de soi’. Society for French Studies Graduate Conference, London, UK (2025)

May 2025

Paper presentation on how the practice of writing could play a unique role in the construction of the self, after Sartre and Derrida. Society for French Studies Graduate Conference, Kings College London, UK.

‘The Text and Context of Freedom: from Derrida to Sartre’. Cambridge French Graduate Conference, Cambridge, UK (2025)

April 2025

Paper presentation on the question of freedom in Sartre's philosophy, read through Derrida's understanding of textuality. Cambridge French Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge, UK.

‘Writing and existence: Sartre, Derrida and the challenge of value.’ Interfaceing, Taipei, Taiwan (2024)

August 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation (online) on the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Interfaceing conference, 2024, ‘From the Invention of Writing to the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence: Cultural Approaches to Information Technology’, at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

‘The textual play of freedom: Derrida and Sartre.’ UK Sartre Society, Oxford, UK (2024)

July 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation assessing the function of Sartre's oeuvre through the Derridean understanding of textuality. 2024 UK Sartre Society Conference, at the Maison Française d'Oxford, Oxford, UK.

‘From Freedom to Writing: the curious case of value.’ Society for French Studies Annual Conference, Stirling, UK (poster) (2024)

July 2024  ·  Poster

Poster presentation on the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Chairing of a panel on Sartre. Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2024, at the University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.

‘Sartre, Derrida et la création de valeurs : entre liberté et écriture.’ Colloque Groupe d’Études Sartriennes, Paris, France (2024)

June 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation assessing the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Colloque annuel du Groupe d’Études Sartriennes, in Paris, at La Sorbonne (Université Paris 1).

‘Angst, serenity and the différance of Derrida.’ Derrida Today Conference, Athens, Greece (2024)
June 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation exploring an existential reading of a few key concepts of the early Derrida. 8th Derrida Today Conference, at the National and Kapodistrian University, Athens, Greece.

‘Sartre meets Derrida: agency and writing as reprise.’ Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar, Cambridge, UK (2024)

February 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the concept of reprise as a possible connecting element between Sartre's freedom and Derrida's writing. French Graduate Research Seminar, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

‘Homo Scribens : vers une bio-graphie qui ne recherche plus rien.’ Colloque ‘Plus d'une discipline : actualité de La vie la mort’, Université Paris 8, Paris, France (2021)
October 2021  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the bridging of biology, writing and existence in Derrida's seminar La vie la mort, in Université Paris 8, Paris, France.

‘Derrida and Law.’ Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India (2016)

January 2016  ·  Summary and handout

Invited talk on Derrida and law, at the Law Center, JNU, Delhi, India.

‘Negation and Action.’ Fondation Inde-Europe de Nouveaux Dialogues, Zagarolo, Italy (2015)

November 2016  ·  Text

Invited paper presentation during the Transcultural Encounters Forum workshop, at FIND, Zagarolo, Italy.

‘Derrida and (Art) Appreciation’ and ‘Derrida and Art (Appreciation).’ Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi, India (2015)

March 2015  ·  Handout

Two invited talks on Derrida and art, at the Department of Art History and Appreciation, JMIU, Delhi, India.

‘The Scandalous Anchor: A Girardian Reading of Pornography.’ Annual Conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, Munich, Germany (2014)

July 2014  ·  Text  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the question of the limits of a Girardian reading of pornography at the Annual Conference of COV&R, Munich, Germany.

‘From Anatta to Interdependence: Buddhist Philosophy and Mimetic Theory.’ Annual Conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, Tokyo, Japan (2012)

July 2012  ·  Text  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the hypothesis of a compatibility between Girard’s thought and Buddhist philosophy at the Annual Conference of COV&R, Tokyo, Japan.

Public discussions

Readers' Break: public discussions on literature, Delhi, India & online (2014-2019)

2014-2019  ·  Website  ·  Facebook page

Readers’ Break: 99 public discussions on literature, in Delhi, India and online.

If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin) (web) · Factotum (Charles Bukowski) (web) · Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) (web) · Letters to a Young Poet (Rilke) (web) · The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner) (web) · The Road (Cormac McCarthy) (web) · Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) (web) · Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) (web) · The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (R.L. Stevenson) (web) · The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen) (web) · The Human Stain (Philip Roth) (web) · To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf) (web) · The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Flaubert) (web) · Touched with Fire (Kay Redfield Jamison) (web) · Faust (Goethe) (web) · Rameau’s Nephew (Diderot) (web) · Sickness Unto Death (Kierkegaard) (web) · Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard) (web) · Don Quixote (Cervantes) (web) · If This is a Man (Primo Levi) (web) · The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Milan Kundera) (web) · Eugene Oregon (Alexander Pushkin) (web) · On the Road (Jack Kerouac) (web) · Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) (web) · Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders) (web) · Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts) (web) · Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) (web) · Withering Heights (Emily Bronte) (web) · The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) (web) · Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (web) · Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee) (web) · Stoner (John Williams) (web) · Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie) (web) · Joseph Anton (Salman Rushdie) (web) · The Museum of Innocence (Orhan Pamuk) (web) · My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk) (web) · The Sellout (Paul Beatty) (web) · A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) (web) · My Mother’s Lover & My Father’s Book (Urs Widmer) (web) · The Vegetarian (Han Kang) (web) · Othello (Shakespeare) (web) · The Argumentative Indian (Amartya Sen) (web) · What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Carver) (web) · The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass) (web) · Em and the Big Hoom (Jerry Pinto) (web) · The Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai) (web) · Kafka on the Shore (Murakami) (web) · The Prince (Machiavelli) (web) · The Shadow Lines (Amitav Ghosh) (web) · Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) (web) · The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) (web) · The Trial (Kafka) (web) · Metamorphosis (Kafka) (web) · The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) (web) · Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) (web) · Look Back in Anger (John Osborne) (web) · The Fall (Camus) (web) · The Stranger (Camus) (web) · Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) (web) · The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) (web) · Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) (web) · Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) (web) · Sakuntalam (Kalidas) (web) · The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) (web) · Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) (web) · Symposium (Plato) (web) · 1984 (George Orwell) (web) · American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis) (web) · Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Dario Fo) (web) · Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett) (web) · Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) (web) · Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri) (web) · Les Fleurs du Mal (Baudelaire) (web) · Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) (web) · The Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger) (web) · Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky) (web) · City of Djinns (Dalrymple) (web) · Identity and Violence (Amartya Sen) (web) · On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge (Lacan) (web) · Theses on the Philosophy of History (Walter Benjamin) (web) · Works (Khushwant Singh) (web) · Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (Deleuze & Guattari) (web) · A Lover’s Discourse (Roland Barthes) (web) · Works (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (web) · The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera) (web) · The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus) (web)

Writing Derrida: public discussions on Derrida's works, Delhi, India (2014-2016)

2014-2016 ·  Facebook: India Derrida group

Writing Derrida: 15 public discussions on the works of Jacques Derrida, in Delhi, India.

Specters of Marx (web) · The Post Card (web) · Faith and Knowledge  (web) · The Other Heading & Philosophy in a Time of Terror (web) · Rogues (web) · Spurs (web) · Archive Fever (web) · Freud and the Scene of Writing (web) · Circumfession (web) · Force of Law (web) · Aporias (web) · Différance (web) · Monolingualism of the Other (web) · Learning to Live Finally (web) · D’ailleurs, Derrida (web)

At Cambridge

Click on each title for more information
‘FRB3: Translation into French.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2026

FRB3: Translation into French. Second year Undergrad language paper. Main instructor for three groups of ten to fourteen students.

‘FR12: Ethics and experience.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2026

FR12: Ethics and experience: literature, thought, and visual culture of the French speaking world (1900 to the present). Fourth year Undergrad scheduled paper. Supervisor for five students.

‘Critical Theory.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2025

Critical Theory. Fourth year and Second year Undergrad paper. Seminar leader (2024-26) and co-convenor (2025-26). Around forty students in total. Modules on Graeber (slides), Althusser (slides), Stiegler, Smail, Bourdieu and Bataille.

Secondary Education

Click on each title for more information
‘Cours de Philosophie.’ Education nationale, France (2018-2023)

2018-2023  ·  TOC

Philosophy class for Terminale Générale and Terminale Technologique students (12th grade, main stream and technological stream), in the Lycée Notre Dame de la Tourtelière, Pouzauges (2018-2023) and the Lycée Sainte Marie, Chantonnay (2018-2020). Creation of a special module of philosophy with films (student assignments on a choice of 100+ films: list). 120/60 hrs per group over 10 months, yearly (September-June).

Syllabus and teaching material:

I. The Human in the Universe
Epistemology (Truth, Reason, Science): Seneca - Plato - Sextus Empiricus - Blondin - Eddington - Descartes - Galileo - Laplace - Locke - Hume - Marrou - Veyne
Anthropology (Nature, Technology, Work): Darwin - Lévi-Strauss - Tort - Illich - Gorz - Stiegler - Morin - Crawford

II. Being and Existing: Being Human
Existential and Moral Philosophy (Time, Consciousness, Freedom, the Subconscious, Happiness) and Philosophy of Religion: Pascal - Stiegler - Heidegger - Levisalles - Descartes - Leibniz - Milgram - Sartre - Spinoza - Libet - Freud - Charcot - Popper - Csikszentmihalyi - Buddhism - Rousseau
Philosophy of Language and Aesthetics: Martinet - Whorf - Nietzsche - Merleau-Ponty - Rilke

III. Becoming an Actor of Society
Political Philosophy (Duty, Work, the State, Justice): Rousseau - Weber - Althusser - Nietzsche - Thoreau

‘Cours de Humanités, Littérature, Philosophie.’ Education nationale, France (2019-2023)

2019-2023  ·  TOC

Humanities class for Première Générale students (11th grade, main stream), in the Lycée Notre Dame de la Tourtelière, Pouzauges (2019-2023). 60 hrs over 10 months (September-June).

Syllabus and teaching material:

I. The powers of speech

Ch. 1 - Rhetorics, Empowerment and Symbolic Violence
Cicero - Isocrates - Bourdieu

Ch. 2 - Rhetorics and Manipulation
Plato - Breton - Aristotle - Hanna Diyab - Homer - Hugo

II. Representations of the World

Ch. 3 - Colonisation and Moral Relativism
Levi-Strauss - Rousseau - Montesquieu - Descola

Ch. 4 - Animality and Reason
Descartes - Voltaire - Duru

Open Education Initiatives

‘Différer et disséminer : vers une pédagogie de la trace. Savoirs, institutions et métaphysique derridienne.’ Through the Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques (2020-2021)

2020-2021  ·  Website  ·  TOC

Study of excerpts from Derrida, Right to Philosophy, Of Grammatology, Margins of Philosophy, Writing and Difference, The university without conditions, and Nietzsche, On the future of our educational institutions, Untimely Meditations, Genealogy of Morals, followed by the discussion of 7 propositions towards the formulation of a derridian pedagogy. Online seminar, Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques, 30 hrs over 4 months.

‘Writing a Spiritual Autobiography : Augustine’s Confessions.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017-2018)

2017-2018  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Augustine's Confessions (4th c. CE). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months.

‘Romantic Boredom, Boring Romances : Madame Bovary.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Gustave Flaubert's, Madame Bovary (1856). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months.

‘Derrida’s Of Grammatology : (Hi)stories of Writing.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology (1967). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months. Taught twice in 2017.

‘The Early Derrida : Down the Play.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (examples)

Study of excerpts from Jacques Derrida's Writing and Difference, Of Grammatology, and Speech and Phenomena (1967). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 26 hrs over 3 months.

‘Becoming a Philosopher : Descartes’ Method.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)
2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout

Study of excerpts from René Descartes' Discourse on the Method (1637). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 6 hrs.

‘Facing the Infinite : Ethics according to Levinas.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts

Web

Study of excerpts from Emmanuel Levinas' Totality and Infinity (1961). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs. Course created and offered through the IST, not yet taught.

‘Ideal of Love and Love of the Idea : Phaedrus.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts

Web

Study of excerpts from Plato's Phaedrus (4th c. BCE). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 6 hrs. Course created and offered through the IST, not yet taught.

At Manipal

‘The Scene of Writing.’ Manipal University (2014)
2014

Introduction to Derrida. Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Philosophy and Methods: Thinking through Humour, Visuals and Emotions.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Foreignness.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Ethics, with Levinas.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

L'Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques is an association created in 2020 with Laurie Haffas. The Atelier offers philosophy seminars online, with a conscious pedagogical effort towards participative practices. Each group of study, intentionally small in size, approaches its corpus in view of coming up with new practical answers to a set problem. Visit the Atelier.

The Institute for the Study of Texts is an organisation created in Delhi, India, in 2017. The Institute offers term courses, crash courses, film analysis programs and writing workshops, through a network of civil society stakeholders. At the IST, every person with an original and rigorous vision can propose and lead a program of textual study. Visit the Institute.

The Institute for the Study of Texts is an organisation created in Delhi, India, in 2017. The Institute offers term courses, crash courses, film analysis programs and writing workshops, through a network of civil society stakeholders. At the IST, every person with an original and rigorous vision can propose and lead a program of textual study. Visit the Institute.

Readers' Break is a gathering of readers, online and offline. Between 2015 and 2019, ninety-nine free, open and participative events were organised to discuss major works of literature and philosophy, first in public spaces in Delhi, and then online. Visit Readers' Break.

Writing Derrida is a series of fifteen public programs organised in Delhi between 2014 and 2016, on the works of Jacques Derrida, around the Facebook community of the India Derrida Group. Visit the community.

Writing Derrida is a series of fifteen public programs organised in Delhi between 2014 and 2016, on the works of Jacques Derrida, around the Facebook community of the India Derrida Group. Visit the community.

Samvriti is a personal publication platform presenting twelve long format, serialised articles on philosophy, literature, art, etc., alongside over forty short pieces, written between 2011 and 2016. Visit Samvriti.

Samuel Buchoul is a doctoral student in the Department of French, University of Cambridge. His project studies how writing has changed us as a species. This question is explored through a dialogue between Derrida’s grammatology and the existential philosophy of Heidegger and Sartre. What he proposes to call an ‘existential grammatology’ would amount to a new understanding of individual empowerment for the challenges of subjectivity today. His articles have been published, or are forthcoming, in journals including Paragraph, Angelaki, Labyrinth and Contagion, and in edited volumes. Samuel is supervised by Prof. Ian James, and advised by Prof. Christina Howells (Oxford). He is also book review editor for Implications Philosophiques. Previously, he taught philosophy in high school, in France (2018-2023). Since the mid 2010s, then in Delhi, India, Samuel has founded several independent organisations offering alternative education and research programmes, including the Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques and the Institute for the Study of Texts. His university training was interdisciplinary, as he studied the social sciences, religion and philosophy, in France, the USA and India.

Mail  ·  CV (EN)  ·  CV (FR)  ·  Online profiles:  University of Cambridge  ·  ORCID  ·  Research Gate  ·  HAL  ·  Google Scholar  ·  PhilPeople  ·  Academia.edu  ·  LinkedIn

Conference presentations & invited talks

Click on each title for more information
‘Derrida lecteur de Sartre : qui ne dit mot consent.’ Séminaire 'Avant/Après Derrida, Lectures de Derrida', ENS, Paris, France (2026)

April 2026

Paper presentation reviewing the trajectory of Derrida's critical mentions of Sartre in his oeuvre, with a special focus on the untranslated Japanese interview of 1987. Séminaire 'Avant/Après Derrida, Lectures de Derrida', ENS, Paris, France.

‘Derrida existentiel : le jeu de l’angoisse-sérénité.’ Colloque 'L’angoisse : de l’expérience à sa médicalisation', Beyrouth, Lebanon (2025)

November 2025

Paper presentation (online) on the relevance of Derrida's supplement to overcome the impasse of angst in existential philosophy. Colloque 'L’angoisse : de l’expérience à sa médicalisation', Beyrouth, Lebanon.

‘Learning to Live as a Trace.’ Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar, Cambridge, UK (2025)

November 2025

Paper presentation on the 'grammatological wisdom' that can be reconstituted from Derrida's differential take on the couple of concept/experiences angst-serenity, in existential philosophy . French Graduate Research Seminar, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

‘Temps et textualité.’ Colloque "À distance et ensemble" Nouvelles perspectives sur Beauvoir et Sartre, Cerisy, France (2025)

July 2025

Paper presentation on the connecting points of the themes of time and textuality, in Sartre, with a special attention to Derridean echoes. Session 'recension des doctorants', colloque "À distance et ensemble" Nouvelles perspectives sur Beauvoir et Sartre, Cerisy, France.

‘‘French thought’ and the pharmakon of relativism.’ Society for French Studies Annual Conference, Bristol, UK (2025)

July 2025

Paper presentation on the challenge and opportunity of relativism in 'French thought', since the 1960s. Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2025, at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

‘A Phenomenology of Writing, after Sartre and Derrida’. Oxford French Graduate Seminar, Oxford, UK (2025)

June 2025

Paper presentation on an attempt at reconstituting a 'phenomenology of writing' from Sartre and Derrida's works. Oxford French Graduate Seminar, University of Oxford, UK.

‘Phenomenology of writing and conditions de soi’. Society for French Studies Graduate Conference, London, UK (2025)

May 2025

Paper presentation on how the practice of writing could play a unique role in the construction of the self, after Sartre and Derrida. Society for French Studies Graduate Conference, Kings College London, UK.

‘The Text and Context of Freedom: from Derrida to Sartre’. Cambridge French Graduate Conference, Cambridge, UK (2025)

April 2025

Paper presentation on the question of freedom in Sartre's philosophy, read through Derrida's understanding of textuality. Cambridge French Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge, UK.

‘Writing and existence: Sartre, Derrida and the challenge of value.’ Interfaceing, Taipei, Taiwan (2024)

August 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation (online) on the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Interfaceing conference, 2024, ‘From the Invention of Writing to the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence: Cultural Approaches to Information Technology’, at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

‘The textual play of freedom: Derrida and Sartre.’ UK Sartre Society, Oxford, UK (2024)

July 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation assessing the function of Sartre's oeuvre through the Derridean understanding of textuality. 2024 UK Sartre Society Conference, at the Maison Française d'Oxford, Oxford, UK.

‘From Freedom to Writing: the curious case of value.’ Society for French Studies Annual Conference, Stirling, UK (poster) (2024)

July 2024  ·  Poster

Poster presentation on the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Chairing of a panel on Sartre. Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2024, at the University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.

‘Sartre, Derrida et la création de valeurs : entre liberté et écriture.’ Colloque Groupe d’Études Sartriennes, Paris, France (2024)

June 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation assessing the concept of value as as a possible link between Sartre and Derrida's projects. Colloque annuel du Groupe d’Études Sartriennes, in Paris, at La Sorbonne (Université Paris 1).

‘Angst, serenity and the différance of Derrida.’ Derrida Today Conference, Athens, Greece (2024)
June 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation exploring an existential reading of a few key concepts of the early Derrida. 8th Derrida Today Conference, at the National and Kapodistrian University, Athens, Greece.

‘Sartre meets Derrida: agency and writing as reprise.’ Cambridge French Graduate Research Seminar, Cambridge, UK (2024)

February 2024  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the concept of reprise as a possible connecting element between Sartre's freedom and Derrida's writing. French Graduate Research Seminar, at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

‘Homo Scribens : vers une bio-graphie qui ne recherche plus rien.’ Colloque ‘Plus d'une discipline : actualité de La vie la mort’, Université Paris 8, Paris, France (2021)
October 2021  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the bridging of biology, writing and existence in Derrida's seminar La vie la mort, in Université Paris 8, Paris, France.

‘Derrida and Law.’ Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India (2016)

January 2016  ·  Summary and handout

Invited talk on Derrida and law, at the Law Center, JNU, Delhi, India.

‘Negation and Action.’ Fondation Inde-Europe de Nouveaux Dialogues, Zagarolo, Italy (2015)

November 2016  ·  Text

Invited paper presentation during the Transcultural Encounters Forum workshop, at FIND, Zagarolo, Italy.

‘Derrida and (Art) Appreciation’ and ‘Derrida and Art (Appreciation).’ Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi, India (2015)

March 2015  ·  Handout

Two invited talks on Derrida and art, at the Department of Art History and Appreciation, JMIU, Delhi, India.

‘The Scandalous Anchor: A Girardian Reading of Pornography.’ Annual Conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, Munich, Germany (2014)

July 2014  ·  Text  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the question of the limits of a Girardian reading of pornography at the Annual Conference of COV&R, Munich, Germany.

‘From Anatta to Interdependence: Buddhist Philosophy and Mimetic Theory.’ Annual Conference of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, Tokyo, Japan (2012)

July 2012  ·  Text  ·  Slides

Paper presentation on the hypothesis of a compatibility between Girard’s thought and Buddhist philosophy at the Annual Conference of COV&R, Tokyo, Japan.

Public discussions

Readers' Break: public discussions on literature, Delhi, India & online (2014-2019)

2014-2019  ·  Website  ·  Facebook page

Readers’ Break: 99 public discussions on literature, in Delhi, India and online.

If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin) (web) · Factotum (Charles Bukowski) (web) · Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) (web) · Letters to a Young Poet (Rilke) (web) · The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner) (web) · The Road (Cormac McCarthy) (web) · Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) (web) · Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) (web) · The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (R.L. Stevenson) (web) · The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen) (web) · The Human Stain (Philip Roth) (web) · To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf) (web) · The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Flaubert) (web) · Touched with Fire (Kay Redfield Jamison) (web) · Faust (Goethe) (web) · Rameau’s Nephew (Diderot) (web) · Sickness Unto Death (Kierkegaard) (web) · Fear and Trembling (Kierkegaard) (web) · Don Quixote (Cervantes) (web) · If This is a Man (Primo Levi) (web) · The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (Milan Kundera) (web) · Eugene Oregon (Alexander Pushkin) (web) · On the Road (Jack Kerouac) (web) · Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) (web) · Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders) (web) · Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts) (web) · Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) (web) · Withering Heights (Emily Bronte) (web) · The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) (web) · Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (web) · Disgrace (J.M. Coetzee) (web) · Stoner (John Williams) (web) · Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie) (web) · Joseph Anton (Salman Rushdie) (web) · The Museum of Innocence (Orhan Pamuk) (web) · My Name is Red (Orhan Pamuk) (web) · The Sellout (Paul Beatty) (web) · A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) (web) · My Mother’s Lover & My Father’s Book (Urs Widmer) (web) · The Vegetarian (Han Kang) (web) · Othello (Shakespeare) (web) · The Argumentative Indian (Amartya Sen) (web) · What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Carver) (web) · The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass) (web) · Em and the Big Hoom (Jerry Pinto) (web) · The Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai) (web) · Kafka on the Shore (Murakami) (web) · The Prince (Machiavelli) (web) · The Shadow Lines (Amitav Ghosh) (web) · Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) (web) · The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) (web) · The Trial (Kafka) (web) · Metamorphosis (Kafka) (web) · The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) (web) · Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) (web) · Look Back in Anger (John Osborne) (web) · The Fall (Camus) (web) · The Stranger (Camus) (web) · Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) (web) · The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) (web) · Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) (web) · Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) (web) · Sakuntalam (Kalidas) (web) · The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) (web) · Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) (web) · Symposium (Plato) (web) · 1984 (George Orwell) (web) · American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis) (web) · Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Dario Fo) (web) · Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett) (web) · Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) (web) · Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri) (web) · Les Fleurs du Mal (Baudelaire) (web) · Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) (web) · The Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger) (web) · Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky) (web) · City of Djinns (Dalrymple) (web) · Identity and Violence (Amartya Sen) (web) · On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge (Lacan) (web) · Theses on the Philosophy of History (Walter Benjamin) (web) · Works (Khushwant Singh) (web) · Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (Deleuze & Guattari) (web) · A Lover’s Discourse (Roland Barthes) (web) · Works (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (web) · The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera) (web) · The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus) (web)

Writing Derrida: public discussions on Derrida's works, Delhi, India (2014-2016)

2014-2016 ·  Facebook: India Derrida group

Writing Derrida: 15 public discussions on the works of Jacques Derrida, in Delhi, India.

Specters of Marx (web) · The Post Card (web) · Faith and Knowledge  (web) · The Other Heading & Philosophy in a Time of Terror (web) · Rogues (web) · Spurs (web) · Archive Fever (web) · Freud and the Scene of Writing (web) · Circumfession (web) · Force of Law (web) · Aporias (web) · Différance (web) · Monolingualism of the Other (web) · Learning to Live Finally (web) · D’ailleurs, Derrida (web)

At Cambridge

Click on each title for more information
‘FRB3: Translation into French.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2026

FRB3: Translation into French. Second year Undergrad language paper. Main instructor for three groups of ten to fourteen students.

‘FR12: Ethics and experience.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2026

FR12: Ethics and experience: literature, thought, and visual culture of the French speaking world (1900 to the present). Fourth year Undergrad scheduled paper. Supervisor for five students.

‘Critical Theory.’ University of Cambridge, UK (2024-2026)

2024-2025

Critical Theory. Fourth year and Second year Undergrad paper. Seminar leader (2024-26) and co-convenor (2025-26). Around forty students in total. Modules on Graeber (slides), Althusser (slides), Stiegler, Smail, Bourdieu and Bataille.

Secondary Education

Click on each title for more information
‘Cours de Philosophie.’ Education nationale, France (2018-2023)

2018-2023  ·  TOC

Philosophy class for Terminale Générale and Terminale Technologique students (12th grade, main stream and technological stream), in the Lycée Notre Dame de la Tourtelière, Pouzauges (2018-2023) and the Lycée Sainte Marie, Chantonnay (2018-2020). Creation of a special module of philosophy with films (student assignments on a choice of 100+ films: list). 120/60 hrs per group over 10 months, yearly (September-June).

Syllabus and teaching material:

I. The Human in the Universe
Epistemology (Truth, Reason, Science): Seneca - Plato - Sextus Empiricus - Blondin - Eddington - Descartes - Galileo - Laplace - Locke - Hume - Marrou - Veyne
Anthropology (Nature, Technology, Work): Darwin - Lévi-Strauss - Tort - Illich - Gorz - Stiegler - Morin - Crawford

II. Being and Existing: Being Human
Existential and Moral Philosophy (Time, Consciousness, Freedom, the Subconscious, Happiness) and Philosophy of Religion: Pascal - Stiegler - Heidegger - Levisalles - Descartes - Leibniz - Milgram - Sartre - Spinoza - Libet - Freud - Charcot - Popper - Csikszentmihalyi - Buddhism - Rousseau
Philosophy of Language and Aesthetics: Martinet - Whorf - Nietzsche - Merleau-Ponty - Rilke

III. Becoming an Actor of Society
Political Philosophy (Duty, Work, the State, Justice): Rousseau - Weber - Althusser - Nietzsche - Thoreau

‘Cours de Humanités, Littérature, Philosophie.’ Education nationale, France (2019-2023)

2019-2023  ·  TOC

Humanities class for Première Générale students (11th grade, main stream), in the Lycée Notre Dame de la Tourtelière, Pouzauges (2019-2023). 60 hrs over 10 months (September-June).

Syllabus and teaching material:

I. The powers of speech

Ch. 1 - Rhetorics, Empowerment and Symbolic Violence
Cicero - Isocrates - Bourdieu

Ch. 2 - Rhetorics and Manipulation
Plato - Breton - Aristotle - Hanna Diyab - Homer - Hugo

II. Representations of the World

Ch. 3 - Colonisation and Moral Relativism
Levi-Strauss - Rousseau - Montesquieu - Descola

Ch. 4 - Animality and Reason
Descartes - Voltaire - Duru

Open Education Initiatives

‘Différer et disséminer : vers une pédagogie de la trace. Savoirs, institutions et métaphysique derridienne.’ Through the Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques (2020-2021)

2020-2021  ·  Website  ·  TOC

Study of excerpts from Derrida, Right to Philosophy, Of Grammatology, Margins of Philosophy, Writing and Difference, The university without conditions, and Nietzsche, On the future of our educational institutions, Untimely Meditations, Genealogy of Morals, followed by the discussion of 7 propositions towards the formulation of a derridian pedagogy. Online seminar, Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques, 30 hrs over 4 months.

‘Writing a Spiritual Autobiography : Augustine’s Confessions.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017-2018)

2017-2018  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Augustine's Confessions (4th c. CE). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months.

‘Romantic Boredom, Boring Romances : Madame Bovary.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Gustave Flaubert's, Madame Bovary (1856). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months.

‘Derrida’s Of Grammatology : (Hi)stories of Writing.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (example)

Study of excerpts from Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology (1967). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs over 3 months. Taught twice in 2017.

‘The Early Derrida : Down the Play.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)

2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout (examples)

Study of excerpts from Jacques Derrida's Writing and Difference, Of Grammatology, and Speech and Phenomena (1967). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 26 hrs over 3 months.

‘Becoming a Philosopher : Descartes’ Method.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts (2017)
2017  ·  Web  ·  Handout

Study of excerpts from René Descartes' Discourse on the Method (1637). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 6 hrs.

‘Facing the Infinite : Ethics according to Levinas.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts

Web

Study of excerpts from Emmanuel Levinas' Totality and Infinity (1961). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 12 hrs. Course created and offered through the IST, not yet taught.

‘Ideal of Love and Love of the Idea : Phaedrus.’ Through the Institute for the Study of Texts

Web

Study of excerpts from Plato's Phaedrus (4th c. BCE). Online seminar, Institute for the Study of Texts, 6 hrs. Course created and offered through the IST, not yet taught.

At Manipal

‘The Scene of Writing.’ Manipal University (2014)
2014

Introduction to Derrida. Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Philosophy and Methods: Thinking through Humour, Visuals and Emotions.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Foreignness.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

‘Ethics, with Levinas.’ Manipal University (2013)
2013

Manipal Undergraduate Internship. 1.5 hr.

L'Atelier des Pratiques Théoriques is an association created in 2020 with Laurie Haffas. The Atelier offers philosophy seminars online, with a conscious pedagogical effort towards participative practices. Each group of study, intentionally small in size, approaches its corpus in view of coming up with new practical answers to a set problem. Visit the Atelier.

The Institute for the Study of Texts is an organisation created in Delhi, India, in 2017. The Institute offers term courses, crash courses, film analysis programs and writing workshops, through a network of civil society stakeholders. At the IST, every person with an original and rigorous vision can propose and lead a program of textual study. Visit the Institute.

The Institute for the Study of Texts is an organisation created in Delhi, India, in 2017. The Institute offers term courses, crash courses, film analysis programs and writing workshops, through a network of civil society stakeholders. At the IST, every person with an original and rigorous vision can propose and lead a program of textual study. Visit the Institute.

Readers' Break is a gathering of readers, online and offline. Between 2015 and 2019, ninety-nine free, open and participative events were organised to discuss major works of literature and philosophy, first in public spaces in Delhi, and then online. Visit Readers' Break.

Writing Derrida is a series of fifteen public programs organised in Delhi between 2014 and 2016, on the works of Jacques Derrida, around the Facebook community of the India Derrida Group. Visit the community.

Writing Derrida is a series of fifteen public programs organised in Delhi between 2014 and 2016, on the works of Jacques Derrida, around the Facebook community of the India Derrida Group. Visit the community.

Samvriti is a personal publication platform presenting twelve long format, serialised articles on philosophy, literature, art, etc., alongside over forty short pieces, written between 2011 and 2016. Visit Samvriti.