Colin Koopman - Publications

How We Became Our Data:
A Genealogy of the Informational Person
(University of Chicago Press, 2019)

Review essay symposium at Syndicate: Philosophy, online, Sep. 2021, with author replies throughout

"Infopower, Formatting, and Inscription" by Daniel Smith (Purdue), [smith essay]
"Infopower & Democracy" by Jennifer Forestal (Loyola U. Chicago), [forestal essay]
"From 'Infamous Men' to Influencers" by Corey McCall (Elmira / Penn State) [mccall essay]
"Inquiring after Foucault" by Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson (Syracuse) [erlenbusch-anderson essay]

Review in The American Historical Review, online, Jun. 2021, by Hallam Stevens (Nanyang Technological U): [ahr review]

Review in New Media & Society, online first, Jan. 2021, by Tyler Horan (New School): [nm&s review]

Review in Political Theory, online first, Dec. 2020, by David J. Gunkel (Northern Illinois U): [pt review]

Review in Revista de Filosofia Moderna e Contemporanea, v8n3, dez. 2020, pp. 285-292, by Graziano Mazzocchini e Rodolpho Venturini: [rdfmc review]

"A History of the Data Present" review essay in History of the Human Sciences, online first (14 pages), Oct. 2020, by David Beer (York U): [hhs review]

"Interface Formats of the Self" review essay in Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology, v24n3, Fall 2020, pp. 412-423, by Ethan Hallerman (Stony Brook U): [tch review]

Review in Contemporary Political Theory, online first, Jul. 2020, by Daniele Lorenzini (Warwick U): [cpt review]

Review in Information & Culture, v55n3, 2020, pp. 294-296, by Rebecka Taves Sheffield (Archives of Ontario): [i & c review]

Review in The Information Society, v36n4, Jun. 2020, p. 236, by Gregory Laynor (Thomas Jefferson U): [is review]

Review in Anthropology Book Forum, May 2020, by Johannes Lenhard (Max Planck Cambridge Centre for the Study of Ethics): [abf review]

Review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May 2020, by Ladelle McWhorter (U Richmond): [ndpr review]

"The Depth Conditions of Possibility: The Data Episteme", review in Theory & Event, v23n2, Apr. 2020, pp. 496-500, by Ekin Erkan (Columbia U): [t&e review]

Review in The History of the Behavioral Sciences, v56n2, Spr. 2020, pp. 138-140, by Ian J. Davidson (York University): [hbs review]

Review in Critical Studies in Media Communication, v37n1, Dec. 2019, pp. 100-103, by Malinda Dietrich (UC Boulder): [csmc review]

"From Foucauldian Biopower to Infopower and Energopower" review essay in Le Foucaldien, v5n1, Nov. 2019, by Kirsten Sophie Hasberg (Aalborg University Copenhagen): [le fou review]

Review in Foucault Studies, n27, Dec. 2019, pp. 161-165, by Leonard D'Cruz (Univ. of Melbourne): [fs review]

"Against Human Capital", review essay in Public Books, July, 2019, by Hadas Weiss (Madrid Inst. for Adv. Study): [pb review]

Data Equals:
Democratic Equality & Technological Hierarchy
(University of Chicago Press, 2025)

"Breaking the Spell of AI's Fairy Tale Wish" review essay (of Data Equals and two other books) in The Review of Politics, v88n3, 2026, pp. 384-389, by Ashley Gorham (Hamilton College): [rp review]
Review in Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, online, Jul. 2026, by Marietjie Botes (UT Austin): [jeet review]
Review symposia forthcoming in Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology and in European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy

General-Audience Writings on Information Politics & Data Ethics

"How Democracy Can Survive Big Data" in The New York Times, The Stone opinion column (& in NYT Sunday Review), Mar. 22, 2018
"The Algorithm and the Watchtower" in The New Inquiry, Sep. 29, 2015
"The Age of 'Infopolitics'" in The New York Times, The Stone opinion column, Jan. 27, 2014

Academic Journal Articles on Information Politics & Data Ethics

"The Ethics of Data Interoperability: Mapping Problems and Strategies in Biomedical Data and Beyond" (co-authored with Asher Caplan) in Big Data & Society, 2025
"Human-Data Coupling: Informational Personhood & Artificial Intelligence through Gilbert Simondon's Philosophy of Technology" in Social Epistemology, v39, 2025: 1-12
"Artificing Intelligence: from Isolating IQ to Amoral AI" in AI & Society, Dec. 2024: 1-13
"From Galton's Pride to Du Bois's Pursuit: The Formats of Data-Driven Inequality" in Theory, Culture, & Society, v41n1, 2024: 59-78
"The Political Theory of Data: Institutions, Algorithms, & Formats in Racial Redlining" in Political Theory, v50n2, 2022: 337-361
"Data, Politics, & Persons: Replies to Smith, Forestal, McCall, and Erlenbusch-Anderson" in Syndicate: Philosophy, Symposium on How We Became Our Data, Sept 2021
"When Data Drive Health: An Archaeology of Medical Records Technology" (co-authored under the group name 'Critical Genealogies Collaboratory' by Colin Koopman, Patrick Jones, Valerie Simon, Paul Showler, and Mary McLevey) in BioSocieties, v17n4, 2022: 782-804
"Coding the Self: The Infopolitics and Biopolitics of Genetic Sciences" in The Hastings Center Report, v50n3, 2020: S6-S14
"Information Before Information Theory: The Politics of Data Beyond the Perspective of Communication" in New Media & Society v21n6, 2019: 1326-1343
"Infopolitics, Biopolitics, Anatomopolitics: Toward a Genealogy of the Power of Data" in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, v39n1, 2018: 103-128
"Standard Forms of Power: Biopower and Sovereign Power in the Technology of the U.S. Birth Certificate, 1903-1935" (co-authored under the group name 'Critical Genealogies Collaboratory' by Colin Koopman, Bonnie Sheehey, Patrick Jones, Laura Smithers, Sarah Hamid, and Claire Pickard) in Constellations, v25n4, 2018: 641-656
"Privacy Is an Essentially Contested Concept: A Multi-dimensional Analytic for Mapping Privacy" (co-authored with Deirdre Mulligan and Nick Doty) in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 374, no. 2083, Dec., 2016

Web Project on Information Politics & Data Histories: Our Data, Our Selves

Pragmatism as Transition: Historicity and Hope in James, Dewey, and Rorty (Columbia University Press, 2009; ppbk. 2015)

Review essay symposium in Contemporary Pragamtism, v14n2, 2017, pp.203-242

"Pragmatism: The Task Before Us" by Stephane Madelrieux (Lyon 3) [madelrieux essay]
"Pragamtism, Practice, and the Politics of Critique" by Alexander Livingston (Cornell) [livingston essay]
"A Prophetic Pragmatist Response to Koopman's Transitional Pragmatism" by Brad Stone (Loyola Marymount) [stone essay]
"Being Pragmatist about Pragmatism: Replies to Stephane Madelrieux, Alexander Livingston, and Brad Stone" by Colin Koopman [koopman reply]

Review in Education and Culture, v30n1, Spring 2014, by Erin C. Tarver (Oxford College of Emory University): [ed & culture review]

Review in The Pluralist, v7n2, Summer 2012, by Robert Main (West Chester University of Pennsylvania): [pluralist review]

Review in Metaphilosophy, v43n4, July 2012, pp. 523-529, by Christopher J. Voparil (Union Institute & University): [metaphil review]

Review in Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, v48n2, Spr. 2012, pp. 228-234, by Joseph Margolis (Temple University): [tcsps review]

Review essay in History & Theory, v50n3, Oct. 2011, pp.425-432 by Martin Jay (UC Berkeley), "Philosophy as Perpetual Motion: Pragmatism Moves On" (reviewing Pragmatism as Transition and Richard J. Bernstein's The Pragmatic Turn): [h&t review]

Review in The Pluralist, v6n2, Summer 2011, by David O'Hara (Augustana College): [pluralist review]

Review essay in Journal of the Philosophy of History, v4n3-4, 2010, pp. 440-449 by Timothy J. Smartt: [jph review]

Review in Foucault Studies, no. 10, Nov. 2010 by Corey McCall (Elmira College): [fs review]

Review essay in Human Affairs, v20n3, Sept. 2010, pp. 278-287, by Wojciech Malecki (University of Wroclaw), "Experiential Foundationalism, Linguistic Practice, and Historicity": [human affairs review]

Review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Aug 2010, by Gregory Fernando Pappas (Texas A&M) and David Hildebrand (UC Denver): [ndpr review]

Review in Choice v47n10, June 2010 ("may be the best general book about pragmatism in a decade") and listed in v48n5, Jan. 2011, as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in the 'Philosophy' category for 2010

Review in European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, v1n1, 2009, by Roberto Frega (Universita degli Studi di Bologna): [ejpap review]

Genealogy as Critique: Foucault and the Problems of Modernity (Indiana University Press, 2013; simultaneous cloth and ppbk.)

Review essay in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, v36n1, Jul. 2015, pp. 199-231, by Sarin Marchetti (Sapienza Universita di Roma), "Problematize and Reconstruct: Foucault, Genealogy, and Critique" [gfpj review]

Review essay symposium in Foucault Studies, n19, Oct. 2014, pp. 238-273

"The Normative and the Transcendental: Comments on Colin Koopman's Genealogy as Critique" by Amy Allen (Dartmouth), pp. 238-244: [allen essay]
"On Left Kantianism: From Transcendental Critique to the Critical Ontology of the Present" by Eduardo Mendieta (Stony Brook), pp. 245-252: [mendieta essay]
"Genealogy, Cryptonormativity, Interpretation" by Kevin Olson (UC Irvine), pp. 253-260: [olson essay]
"Genealogy, Methodology, & Normativity beyond Transcendentality: Replies to Amy Allen, Eduardo Mendieta, & Kevin Olson", pp. 261-273: [koopman reply]

Review essay in History & Theory, v53n3, Oct. 2014, pp. 419-427, by Todd May (Clemson University), "Genealogy, Problematization, and Normativity in Michel Foucault": [h&t review]

Review in International Journal of Communication, v8, July 2014, by Rob Gehl (University of Utah): [ijoc review]

Review in Foucault Studies, no. 17, April 2014, by George W. Shea, IV (Duquesne University): [fouc studs review]

Review in Theory & Event, v17n1, March 2014, by Lauri Siisiainen (University of Jyvaskyla): [t&e review]

Review in Choice, v51n3, Nov. 2013

Review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Aug 2013, by Amy Allen (Dartmouth College): [ndpr review]

Articles & Essays on Pragmatist Methodology

My most recent work on pragmatist method is focused on an actionistic or conduct-centered pragmatism via William James.

"Rorty's Metaphilosophy: A Pluralistic Corridor" in David Rondel (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Richard Rorty (Cambridge University Press, 2021): 19-41
"The Uses of Philosophy after the Collapse of Metaphysics: Ironism and Liberalism in Rorty's Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity" in Alan Malachowski (ed.), A Companion to Rorty (Wiley-Blackwell Press, 2020): 100-118
"Transition, Action, & Education: Redirecting Pragmatist Philosophy of Education" (co-authored with Darren Garside) in Journal of the Philosophy of Education, v53n4, Nov. 2019: 734-747
"Pragmatic and Analytic Evasions of Idealism: James and Wittgenstein on Conduct & Practice" in Maria Baghramian and Sarin Marchetti (eds.), Pragmatism and the European Traditions: Encounters with Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology Before the Great Divide (Routledge Press, 2018): 65-85
"Being Pragmatist about Pragmatism: Replies to Stephane Madelrieux, Alexander Livingston, and Brad Stone" in Contemporary Pragmatism, v14n2, "Symposium on paperback edition of Pragmatism as Transition", 2017: 231-242
"From Philosophy to Philosophies: Prefatory Notes on Deleuzianism and Pragmatism" in Simone Bignall, Sean Bowden, and Paul Patton (eds.), Deleuze and Pragmatism (Routledge Press, 2014): xi-xiv
"Conduct Pragmatism: Pressing Beyond Experientialism and Lingualism" in European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, v6n2, Fall 2014: 145-174
"Challenging Philosophy: Rorty's Positive Conception of Philosophy as Cultural Criticism" in Colin Koopman, Alexander Groeschner, and Mike Sandbothe (eds.), Richard Rorty: From Pragmatist Philosophy to Cultural Politics (Bloomsbury Press, 2013)
"Pragmatist Resources for Experimental Philosophy: Inquiry in Place of Intuition" in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, v26n1, 2012: 1-24
"Genealogical Pragmatism: How History Matters for Foucault and Dewey" in Journal of the Philosophy of History v5n3, 2011: 533-561
"Rorty's Linguistic Turn: Why (More Than) Language Matters to Philosophy" in Contemporary Pragmatism, v8n1, 2011: 61-84
"Foucault and Pragmatism: Introductory Notes on Metaphilosophical Methodology" in Colin Koopman (ed.), Foucault Studies special issue on "Foucault and Pragmatism", n11, Apr., 2011: 3-10
"Historicism in Pragmatism: Lessons for Historiography and Political Philosophy" in Metaphilosophy, v41n4, October 2010: 690-713
"The History and Critique of Modernity: Dewey with Foucault against Weber" in Paul Fairfield (ed.), John Dewey and Continental Philosophy (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010): 194-218
"Language is a Form of Experience: Reconciling Classical Pragmatism and Neopragmatism" in Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, v43n4, Fall 2007: 694-727
"Pragmatism as a Philosophy of Hope: Emerson, James, Dewey, and Rorty" in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, v20n2, Summer 2006: 106-116

Articles & Essays on Genealogical Methodology

My work on genealogical method is best exemplified in an essay on Foucault distinguishing his empirical methods from his philosophical concepts and a more recent essay on Williams distinguishing functional from empirical genealogy.

"Foucault's Methods: Archaeology, Genealogy, Empiricity" (co-authored with Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson) in Daniele Lorenzini (ed.), The Foucauldian Mind (Routledge, 2026): 325-340
"Genealogy, Empirical History, and Functional Teleology" in Mind v135n539, Jul. 2026: 650-671
"Conceptual Analysis for Genealogical Philosophy: How to Study the History of Practices after Foucault and Wittgenstein" in Southern Journal of Philosophy 55, Special Supp. on 'Critical Histories of the Present,' Verena Erlenbusch (ed.), Sept. 2017: 103-121.
"Must Philosophy Be Obligatory?: History versus Metaphysics in Foucault and Derrida" in Olivia Custer, Penelope Deutscher, and Samir Haddad (eds.), Foucault/Derrida Fifty Years Later: The Futures of Genealogy, Deconstruction, and Politics (Columbia University Press, 2016)
"Critical Problematization in Foucault and Deleuze: The Force of Critique without Judgment" in Nicolae Morar, Thomas Nail, and Daniel W. Smith (eds.), Between Deleuze and Foucault (Edinburgh University Press, 2016)
"Conduct and Power: Foucault's Methodological Expansions in 1971" in Perry Zurn and Andrew Dilts (eds.), Active Intolerance: Michel Foucault, the Prisons Information Group, and the Future of Abolition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016): 59-74
"Genealogy, Methodology, & Normativity beyond Transcendentality: Replies to Amy Allen, Eduardo Mendieta, & Kevin Olson" in Foucault Studies, "Symposium on Genealogy as Critique", no. 18, Oct. 2014: 261-273
"Michel Foucault's Critical Empiricism Today: Concepts and Analytics in the Critique of Biopower and Infopower" in James Faubion (ed.), Foucault Now: Current Perspectives in Foucault Studies (Polity Press, 2014): 88-111
"Putting Foucault to Work: Analytic and Concept in Foucaultian Inquiry" (co-authored with Tomas Matza) in Critical Inquiry, v39n4, Summer 2013: 817-840
"Genealogical Pragmatism: How History Matters for Foucault and Dewey" in Journal of the Philosophy of History v5n3, 2011: 533-561
"The Direction of Contemporary Critical Theory: A Response to Amy Allen's The Politics of Our Selves" in Current Perspectives in Social Theory, v29, 2011: 91-103
"Foucault Across the Disciplines: Introductory Notes on Contingency in Critical Inquiry" in Colin Koopman (ed.), History of the Human Sciences special issue on "Foucault Across the Disciplines", v24n4, Oct. 2011: 1-12
"Foucault and Pragmatism: Introductory Notes on Metaphilosophical Methodology" in Colin Koopman (ed.), Foucault Studies special issue on "Foucault and Pragmatism", n11, Apr., 2011: 3-10
"Bernard Williams on Philosophy's Need for History" in The Review of Metaphysics, v64n1, September 2010: 3-30
"The History and Critique of Modernity: Dewey with Foucault against Weber" in Paul Fairfield (ed.), John Dewey and Continental Philosophy (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010): 194-218
"Historical Critique or Transcendental Critique in Foucault: Two Kantian Lineages" in Foucault Studies, n8, February 2010: 100-121 (with reply by Kevin Thompson and my response to reply in no. 8, and reply by Colin McQuillan and my response to reply forthcoming in no. 9)
"Two Uses of Genealogy: Michel Foucault and Bernard Williams" in Carlos Prado (ed.), Foucault's Legacy (Continuum Books, 2009): 90-108
"Foucault's Historiographical Expansion: Adding Genealogy to Archaeology" in Journal of the Philosophy of History, v2n3, Fall 2008: 338-362

Articles & Essays on Pragmatist Politics & Ethics

Recent work on these topics includes an essay pair linking James's moral psychology and normative ethics of belief, and then situating that link in James's historical context where freedom came into contact with probabilistic reasoning.

"Transforming the Self amidst the Challenges of Chance: William James on 'Our Undisciplinables'" in diacritics, v44n4, 2016 [actual pub. nov. 2017]: 40-65

"The Will, the Will to Believe & William James: An Ethics of Freedom as Self-Transformation" in Journal of the History of Philosophy, v55n3, 2017: 491-512

"Contesting Injustice: Why Pragmatist Political Thought Needs Du Bois" in Susan Dieleman, David Rondel, and Chris Voparil (eds.), Pragmatism and Justice (Oxford University Press, 2017)

"Unruly Pluralism and Inclusive Tolerance: The Normative Contribution of Jamesian Pragmatism to Non-Ideal Theory" in Political Studies Review, v14n1, Feb. 2016: 27-38

"Dewey as a Radical Democrat and a Liberal Democrat: Considerations on Bernstein on Dewey" in Judith Green (ed.), Richard J. Bernstein and the Pragmatist Turn in Contemporary Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014): 112-125

"Democracy both Radical and Liberal: Political Agency in Dewey and in Laclau and Mouffe" in Jacquelyn Ann Kegley and Krzysztof Piotr Skowronski (eds.), Persuasion and Compulsion in Democracy (Lexington Press, 2013)

"Pragmatist Interpretations of Obama: On Two Ways of Being a Pragmatist" in Colin Koopman and Mark Sanders (eds.), Contemporary Pragmatism special symposium on "Obama and Pragmatism", v8n2, Dec., 2011: 99-112

"Introductory Notes on the Obama and Pragmatism Symposium" (with Mark Sanders) in Colin Koopman and Mark Sanders (eds.), Contemporary Pragmatism special symposium on "Obama and Pragmatism", v8n2, Dec., 2011: 1-6

"Morals and Markets: Liberal Democracy through Dewey and Hayek" in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, v23n3, Fall 2009: 151-179

"Public and Private in Feminism and Pragmatism" in International Studies in Philosophy, v40n2, Spring 2008: 45-58

"Rorty's Moral Philosophy for Liberal Democratic Culture" in Contemporary Pragmatism, v4n2, Fall 2007: 45-64

"William James's Politics of Personal Freedom" in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, v19n2, Summer 2005: 175-186

Articles & Essays on Genealogical Politics & Ethics

Recent work on these topics includes an essay in political theory exploring how to make use of the distinction between methods and concepts I develop in methodological work.

"Critique without Judgment in Political Theory: Politicization in Foucault's Historical Genealogy of Herculine Barbin" in Contemporary Political Theory, v18n4, Dec. 2019: 477-497

"Problematization in Foucault's Genealogy & Deleuze's Symptomatology: or, How to Study Sexuality without Invoking Oppositions" in Angelaki, v23n2, 2018: 187-204

"The Power Thinker" at Aeon, Mar. 15, 2017

"Two Uses of Michel Foucault in Political Theory: Concepts and Methods in Giorgio Agamben and Ian Hacking" in Constellations, v22n4, Dec. 2015: 571-585

"The Formation and Self-Transformation of the Subject in Foucault's Ethics", in Chris Falzon, Timothy O'Leary, and Jana Sawicki (eds.), A Companion to Foucault (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

"Bernard Williams on Pluralism, Liberalism, and History" in Theoretical and Applied Ethics, v1n3, 2011: 11-21

"Revising Foucault: The History and Critique of Modernity" in Philosophy & Social Criticism, v36n5, May 2010: 545-565

[ colin koopman : books and articles ]