Daniel Defert (10 September 1937 – 7 February 2023) was a French sociologist and

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

activist. Partner to the late

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

, Defert co-founded France's first AIDS advocacy group, AIDES, following Foucault's death from complications related to the disease. Defert was the heir to Foucault's estate.

Early life

Daniel Defert was born on 10 September 1937. He graduated from the

École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

. He earned the

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

in philosophy. Defert met Foucault while he was a philosophy student at the

University of Clermont-Ferrand The University of Clermont-Ferrand was officially founded in 1896, by merging of two existing faculties (Literature and Sciences) and a medical school. In 1976, due to political issues, the University split between University Clermont-Ferrand I - ...

in France and their relationship lasted from 1963 until Foucault's death in 1984.

Early academic career

A professor of sociology, Daniel Defert was assistant (1969–1970), maître-assistant (1971–1985), then maître de conférence (from 1985) at the Centre Universitaire of Vincennes, which became in 1972 Université Paris VIII Vincennes.

AIDS research and activism

After the death of his partner Michel Foucault from complications related to AIDS, Defert founded AIDES, the first AIDS awareness organization in France. The name invokes the French word for "help" as well as the English acronym for the disease (the French acronym is SIDA). Defert served as president of AIDES from 1984 to 1991. Defert was a member of the scientific committee for human sciences of the International Conference on AIDS (1986–94); member of the World Commission for AIDS (

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

) (1988–93); member of the National Committee for AIDS (1989–98), of the Global AIDS Policy Coalition of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(1994–1997), and of the French Haut Comité de la Santé Publique (from 1998). Defert was the author of numerous articles in the domain of ethno-iconography and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

. He was awarded the decoration of Knight of

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

and received the Alexander Onassis prize for the creation of AIDES in 1998.

Foucault estate

After Foucault's death, Defert inherited his estate despite the fact that their partnership preceded French government recognition of gay couples through civil unions (1999) or

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

(2013) and Foucault left no official will; however Foucault had written a letter indicating his intention to bequeath his apartment and all its contents, which included his archive and corrected proofs for an unpublished manuscript, to Defert. Other family members deferred to Foucault's wishes, but without government recognition, Defert, like other surviving partners in a similar position, was still subject to much higher inheritance taxes than he would have been as a recognized family member. Defert co-edited, with François Ewald, volume 4 of '' Dits et Ecrits'' of Michel Foucault (1994), a posthumous collection of Foucault's writing. In 2013, Defert sold for €3.8m ($4.0m, May 2022) Foucault's archives to France's national library, making the material available to researchers; subsequently the family, which owns the literary rights, elected to publish the manuscript (''Confessions of the Flesh'', 2018, the fourth and final volume of Foucault's '' History of Sexuality''), despite Foucault's instruction that no work be published posthumously. Defert explained the decision that after the material became available to researchers with the credentials to acquire a reader card at the national library, Defert and others close to Foucault felt that access should be either available "to everyone or no one". Additionally, many previous posthumous works had already been published, and Defert felt this new addition did not make any encroachment on Foucault's intimate life, but strictly contributed to the corpus of his intellectual contributions; by contrast, the letters exchanged between the two of them, Defert said in 2012, he intended to "take to his grave."

Death

Defert died in Paris on 7 February 2023, at the age of 85.

References

External links

AIDES official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defert, Daniel 1937 births 2023 deaths ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris Academic staff of Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis Harvard University people French sociologists French activists French HIV/AIDS activists Michel Foucault French gay men French LGBTQ scientists Knights of the Legion of Honour LGBTQ academics People from Avallon