Françoise Vergès

Vergès' book A Decolonial Feminism was published in English in 2021, translated by Ashley J. Bohrer along with Vergès, with the support of an English PEN Translates award.

On 10 May 2017, Françoise Vergès was appointed to the "Mission of the memory of slavery, treaties and their abolitions" public interest group.

She is also, for several years, the scientific director of the Réunion Cultural Center (MCUR). Her appointment, as well as the project itself, are subject to debate in Réunion society. On the 3rd, the journalist Pierrot Dupuy filed a civil suit against Paul Vergès for having appointed his daughter to the management, which would constitute, according to him, a conflict of interest. It seems that the call for candidatures to the head of the MCUR had been unsuccessful, and to date, the illegal nature of the appointment of Françoise Vergès is not proven. Regarding the scientific project of the MCUR, the Commission of public inquiry gives in its report of 19 February 2010 to the prefect Michel Lalande a favorable opinion. On the 21st, the strong opposition to the MCUR project, which was expressed at the polls, as well as the victory of the party led by Didier Robert to the Réunion Regional Council, led to the end of the MCUR project. Upon his election, in accordance with his program, Didier Robert announced the end of the MCUR project.

In 2009, she is an "expert", within the framework of the Overseas Estates General.

After being vice-president, Françoise Vergès became, on 13 February 2008, replacing Maryse Condé, the president of the National Committee for the memory and history of slavery. A decree of 10 May 2009 names her as Chairperson of the National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery.

In 1996, she taught at University of Sussex, and was a member of the political science department at the Center for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She studies the problem of colonial slavery and the phenomena of creolization using political theories using postcolonial logic.

She holds a PhD in Political Science, from the University of California, Berkeley in May 1995, a thesis published under the title Monsters and revolutionaries: Colonial family romance and grooming. She took as a plot the political history of Réunion from its origins to the present day, to trace the journey of her family engaged in politics since 1930.

Vergès was born in Paris, grew up in Réunion and Algeria, before returning to Paris to study and become a journalist. She moved to the US in 1983, studying at the University of California, San Diego and Berkeley.

A feminist activist, Françoise Vergès collaborated with the journal Women in Motion, a monthly and weekly, published between 1978 and 1982, and with the collection "Women in struggle of all countries", at Éditions des femmes, from 1981 to 1983. Leading her feminist and anti-racist struggles, Françoise Vergès has collaborated with the association Rualité created by the hip-hop artist Bintou Dembélé.

Françoise Vergès (born 23 January 1952) is a French political scientist, historian, film producer, independent curator, activist and public educator. Her work focuses on postcolonial studies and decolonial feminism.