Anne Querrien

Childhood, youth and political formation

The eldest of five sisters,^[1] Anne Querrien was born on 13 December 1945. She is the daughter of Max Querrien, a senior Breton civil servant who served as mayor of Paimpol from 1962 to 1995 and president of the Institut français d'architecture from 1982 to 1987.^[2]

A trade union activist during her sociology studies at the Paris Nanterre University and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences,^[1][3][4] she was one of the leading figures of the Mouvement du 22 mars at Nanterre and in Paris in 1968.^[5][6] She became secretary-general of the CERFI, Centre d'études, de recherches et de formation institutionnelles (Centre for Institutional Studies, Research and Training), founded in the 1970s,^[7][8][9] where she developed close ties with Félix Guattari^[10][11] and Guy Hocquenghem.^[12]

Homosexual activism

Anne Querrien took part in the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR), founded in March 1971, as documented in the film La révolution du désir (2006), directed by Alessandro Avellis, which traces the history of the FHAR and its connections with Guy Hocquenghem and Françoise d'Eaubonne.^[13]

In 1973, Anne Querrien was one of the coordinators of the landmark issue Trois milliards de pervers. Grande Encyclopédie des homosexualités (Recherches journal, no. 12, March 1973),^[14] edited by Félix Guattari. The issue brought together contributions from Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, and Guy Hocquenghem, among others.^[15][16] According to Gary Genosko, this publication was produced in six months with the help of Guy Hocquenghem, as several FHAR members joined the CERFI.^[14] Seized upon publication and condemned for "offence to public morals", the issue marked the eruption of homosexuality into French public debate.^[17][18]

Journals and editorial work

Anne Querrien co-founded and co-edited several major intellectual journals:

• Recherches (the CERFI journal, founded in 1965 by Félix Guattari^[19])
• Chimères (founded by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in 1987; she served on the editorial board)^[20]
• Futur Antérieur (with Toni Negri)
• Les Annales de la recherche urbaine (editor-in-chief from 1985 to 2010, with Pierre Lassave and Marie-Flore Mattei)^[21][22]
• Multitudes (a political, artistic and philosophical journal she helped found in 2000, serving as co-director from 2008 to 2025)^[1][3]

Academic career

Following May 1968, Anne Querrien became a junior lecturer at the Institut national pour la formation des adultes,^[3] then taught sociology at the Paris 8, Paris 1, and the Évry-Val-d'Essonne University (now Évry Paris-Saclay).^[1] From 1979 to 2010 she worked as a research officer at the Urban Research Mission of the Ministry of Equipment,^[3] and subsequently as editor-in-chief of the Annales de la recherche urbaine.^[21]

Mutual Schooling

Anne Querrien is the author of important research on mutual schooling (école mutuelle), an early-nineteenth-century French pedagogical experiment.^[23] Her work, first published in the journal Recherches ("L'ensaignement", no. 23, 1976),^[24] was reissued in 2005 as L'école mutuelle : une pédagogie trop efficace ? by Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond (181 pp.), with a preface by philosopher Isabelle Stengers entitled "Une école mutuelle : ça existe ?".^[25][26]

This genealogical study examines how the mutual school — a system in which pupils work in small groups and teach one another — was abolished despite its pedagogical effectiveness, notably because it allowed students to move through the intended curriculum far too quickly and failed to instil deference to hierarchical knowledge.^[27][28] According to Isabelle Stengers, the system was suppressed because students completed in three years a curriculum designed for six, and because, contrary to the intended outcome, they did not learn respect for hierarchical knowledge but instead developed "a practice of insubordination towards those who claim to think in the name of others, without others, for the greater good of others".^[29] This work extends Michel Foucault's analyses of the school apparatus in Discipline and Punish.^[30]

Gender and Feminist Studies

As coordinator of the pioneering anthology Trois milliards de pervers (1973) and translator of Dreaming the Dark (1982) by ecofeminist activist Starhawk, Anne Querrien also co-authored with anthropologist Monique Selim La libération des femmes, une plus-value mondiale (2015), which analyses women's liberation from a global economic perspective.^[31][32] She has also contributed numerous articles on feminism, particularly to the journal Multitudes.^[33]

Books

• (coord. with Félix Guattari), Trois milliards de pervers. Grande Encyclopédie des Homosexualités, Recherches, no. 12, 1973.
• Généalogie des équipements collectifs. L'École primaire, research report for the Ministry of Equipment, Fontenay-sous-Bois, CERFI, 1975.
• (with Éliane Brillaud) Ville et immigration : dossier bibliographique, Ministry of Equipment, La Défense, Éditions Villes et territoires, 1997. ISBN 2-11-082165-5
• En marge de la ville, au cœur de la société: ces quartiers dont on parle, (collective editorship), Paris, Éditions de l'Aube, 1997, 349 pp.^[22]
• L'école mutuelle : une pédagogie trop efficace ?, preface by Isabelle Stengers, Paris, Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond, 2005, 181 pp. ISBN 2-84671-133-X<^[30][34]
• (with Monique Selim) La libération des femmes, une plus-value mondiale, Paris, L'Harmattan, coll. "Anthropologie Critique", 2015.^[32][31]
• (ed. with Marco Candore and Mayette Viltard) Chaoerrances/cohérences. Anarchies couronnées et hiérarchies de la représentation, Paris, Cahiers de l'Unebévue, 2017.
• (ed. with Anne Sauvagnargues and Arnaud Villani) Agencer les multiplicités avec Deleuze, Paris, Hermann, coll. "Colloque de Cerisy", 2019.

Contributions to Edited Volumes

• "Le CERFI, l'expérimentation sociale et l'État : témoignage d'une petite main", in Philippe Bezes et al. (eds.), L'État à l'épreuve des sciences sociales, Paris, La Découverte, 2005.
• "Le fou, le passant, l'agent, le concepteur", in Daniel Cefaï and Carole Saturno (eds.), Itinéraire d'un pragmatiste. Autour d'Isaac Joseph, Economica, 2007.