Dr Benjamin Dalton
Lecturer in French StudiesResearch Interests
My research is broadly situated between French Studies and the Medical Humanities. In particular, I am interested in how contemporary French philosophy and cultural production are currently dialoguing with biomedical science. I want to explore how engagements with science and medicine across French philosophy, literature and visual art can help us respond to diverse problems currently facing public healthcare and transform the ways we think about therapy and care.
I am currently working on two research projects. My first project explores the work of the contemporary French philosopher Catherine Malabou, who writes at the intersections of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the neurosciences. Malabou’s central concept of ‘plasticity’ describes how organic lifeforms change and transform throughout life, as can be seen for instance in the neuroplasticity of the human brain which adapts and re-models itself constantly. My work brings Malabou’s interdisciplinary philosophy of biological mutability and plasticity into contact with depictions of bodily transformation and metamorphosis in contemporary French literature and film. My publications on Malabou, literature and film include a book chapter on plasticity and representations of queerness in Alain Guiraudie’s cinema (2019); an article on Malabou in relation to literary depictions of metamorphosis in the writer Marie Darrieussecq (Dalhousie French Studies, 2020); an article on representations of microbiological mutability in Malabou and the queer films of Robin Campillo (Modern and Contemporary France, 2022); and an exploration of conceptions of plasticity, form, and formlessness in Malabou and the work of Georges Bataille (MLN, 2022). I have also published an interview with Malabou in Paragraph (2019).
My new project, provisionally titled Transforming the Hospital with Contemporary French Philosophy, argues that contemporary French philosophers are currently engaging with biomedical science in ways which can propose new kinds of healthcare spaces and hospital environments. Bringing together thinkers such as Catherine Malabou, Paul B. Preciado, Jean-Luc Nancy and Isabelle Stengers, I argue that there has been a shift in the relationship between French philosophy and the hospital: whereas Michel Foucault’s influential critique Birth of the Clinic (1963) once characterised a philosophical distrust of the hospital, my new project seeks to analyse how contemporary French philosophers are engaging positively and dynamically with medical science in order to propose new clinical environments for empowering and emancipatory healthcare. I am particularly interested in how philosophy can help propose empowering healthcare environments for LGBTQIA+ patients. I have published preliminary work from this project in my article: ‘The Plastic Clinic: Catherine Malabou’s Architectural Therapeutics’ (Essays in French Literature & Culture, 2021).
Current Teaching
FREN101: Part 1 French Studies (Advanced)
FREN233: Shaping Contemporary France: Moments and Movements
DELC218: Thinking Queerness: LGBTQIA+ lives, identities and politics in contemporary thought and cultural production
DELC320: Full Unit Dissertation
DELC338: Spirits in the Material World: Cultures and Sciences
DELC346: Transforming Thinking: From Philosophy to Neuroscience in French and Francophone Thought
Research Overview
My research explores dialogues between French Studies and the Medical Humanities. In particular, I look at how contemporary French philosophy and cultural production approach innovations in biomedical science, and how biomedical science also inspires innovations within philosophy and cultural production. I have published on the philosophy of Catherine Malabou, whose interdisciplinary between philosophy and (neuro)science explores how living beings are "plastic" and transform throughout life. My new research looks at representations of the hospital in contemporary French philosophy.
Research Grants
2024: FASS Health Hub Funding 2023-24 to support the Queer Medical Humanities Network Public Research Showcase (19th April, 2024, at the Health Innovation Campus, Lancaster University)
2023: FASS Health Research Hub Funding 2022-23 to support a seed meeting for the new Queer Medical Humanities Network
2022: Society for French Studies Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship
2017: King's College London Collaborative Scheme for Early Career Researchers
2015-2018: LAHP-AHRC PhD Studentship
PhD Supervision Interests
I welcome PhD proposals relating to any of the following broad topics: - Contemporary French literature, film, visual art, and cultural production more broadly - 20th and 21st-century French and continental philosophy - The philosophy of Catherine Malabou - Medical and Health Humanities - Interdisciplinary dialogues between philosophy, art, science, and medicine - Gender and Sexuality Studies - Queer Studies and queer theory Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you want to discuss your proposal or any of the above.
Creative Methodologies for Inclusive Healthcare Design Fututres
01/01/2025 → …
Research
Performing Hospitals: Representations of the Hospital in Contemporary Theatre
01/12/2024 → …
Research
The Queer Lives of the Hospital: An Archive of LGBTQIA+ Experiences of Hospital Environments
01/03/2024 → …
Research
Queer Medical Humanities
21/07/2023 → …
Research
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Strategic Internationalisation Fund 2022/2023
01/04/2023 → 31/07/2023
Other
Transforming the Hospital with Contemporary French Philosophy
01/07/2020 → …
Research
Plasticity in Contemporary French Thought, Literature and Film: Witnessing Transformations with Catherine Malabou
01/09/2015 → 01/07/2020
Research
Is the future of the hospital queer? Building 'Our Queer Hospital'
Invited talk
Seminar and podcast series: Conversations about Arts, Humanities and Health
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Film-Philosophy Special Issue Launch: Catherine Malabou, Plasticity and Film
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
LICA Research Seminar: "Film & Philosophy: Catherine Malabou, Plasticity and Film"
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
National Centre for Research Methods: MethodsCon 2024: Futures
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities
Participation in conference - Academic
Our Queer Hospital
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2024
Participation in conference - Academic
DeLC Postgraduate Study Day
Participation in conference - Academic
Sensing Through Description
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
How to build a queer hospital: redesigning clinical spaces with Paul B. Preciado and the Queer Medical Humanities
Invited talk
Queer Medical Humanities Network: Public Research Showcase
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Build Your Own Hospital
Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition
The DAPHNE Project": A Celebration of Anne Hirsch-Henecke’s County South sculpture Daphne
Symposium
LGBTQ&A
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
French Studies (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Guest lecture: How can French philosophy help us to transform the hospital?
Invited talk
Building Blocks for Clinicians
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
"Plastic, it’s fantastic!” Take 2: Barbie meets Chemical Engineering, French Philosophy, and Neuroscience
Oral presentation
"Plastic, it’s fantastic!”: Barbie meets Chemical Engineering, French Philosophy, and Neuroscience
Oral presentation
Inclusive Healthcare Spaces
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Queer Medical Humanities Network: Talk at the Health@Lancaster Collaboration Café
Invited talk
Tangence (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Languages in Science GLOBAL
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Queer Medical Humanities Network: Seed Meeting
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2023
Participation in conference - Academic
Society for French Studies Annual Conference 2023
Participation in conference - Academic
DeLC EDI Wellbeing Event for Students and Staff
Other
EDI in the IPY: Student Workshop Afternoon
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Application Journey Post-PhD
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
FASS Health Hub Showcase
Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition
Wellbeing and health research in the arts, humanities and social sciences
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Brown Bag research session
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Catherine Malabou, (neuro)plasticity, and the hospital: caring for transforming bodies
Invited talk
Relaxing with Catherine Malabou: Approaches to letting go in philosophy and neuroscience
Invited talk
Society for French Studies 2022 annual conference
Participation in conference - Academic
Listening to the neuro-plastic body in the work of Catherine Malabou: Witnessing bodily transformation
Invited talk
Senses and Modern Health/care Environments: Exploring Interdisciplinary and InternationalOpportunities
Participation in conference - Academic
Modern and Contemporary France (Journal)
Editorial activity
Contemporary Womxn's Writing and the Medical Humanities
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Contemporary Womxn's Writing and the Medical Humanities
Participation in conference - Academic
Contemporary Women's Writing and the Medical Humanities: Online seminar Series
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Contemporary Women's Writing and the Medical Humanities: Online seminar Series
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Narrating the Brain
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Dean's Awards: Early Career Teacher of the Year (Highly Commended)
Prize (including medals and awards)
- FASS Health Hub
- Queer Medical Humanities Network
- Transcultural Writing, Practice and Research Network