Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.

Notable work:

Madness and Civilization (1961)
The Birth of the Clinic (1963)
The Order of Things (1966)
Discipline and Punish (1975)
The History of Sexuality (1976)

Notable ideas:

biopower (biopolitics)
disciplinary institution
discourse analysis
discursive formation
dispositif, épistémè
"archaeology"
"carceral archipelago"
"genealogy"
governmentality
heterotopia
gaze
limit-experience
power-knowledge
panopticism
subjectivation (assujettissement)
parrhesia
epimeleia heautou
visibilités
regimes of truth