Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis

Foundation

On Monday 5th of August 1968, the Dean of the University of Paris, Raymond Las Vergnas, proposed the creation of a new university to Edgar Faure, the Minister of National Education. Las Vergnas was accompanied by professors Pierre Dommergues, Bernard Cassen and a young female lecturer in English, Hélène Cixous.^[5] Two days later, Cixous sent a telegram to her friend Jacques Derrida, asking him to be his advisor.^[6] Through Derrida, Cixous recruited Georges Canguilhem and Roland Barthes, who became official advisors.^[6][7]

Tumultuous years

As soon as it opened, the University of Vincennes became the venue for a continuation of 1968, being occupied almost immediately by student radicals, and being the scene of violent confrontations with the police. One incident, in early 1972, involved a janitors' strike. The radicalized janitors invaded classrooms, accused the professors of being scabs, and demanded solidarity. Meanwhile, there was so much radical leafleting, some university hallways were clogged with ankle-deep crumpled leaflets.^{[citation needed][tone]}

It became known for its radical philosophy department, with many faculty considering themselves communist which was at the time headed by Michel Foucault, who in this stage of his career was at his most militant, on one occasion participating in a student occupation and pelting the police outside the building with projectiles.

The most consequential scandal of this department emerged around one of the philosophy professors, Jacques Lacan's daughter Judith Miller. The department had its accreditation withdrawn after it was revealed that Miller had handed out course credit to strangers she met on a bus.^[8] Miller was subsequently fired by the French education ministry after saying in a radio interview that the university was a capitalist institution and that she was trying to sabotage it from within.^{[citation needed]}

Recent reforms

Since the turmoil in the late 1960s, the University of Vincennes has endorsed a far more mainstream academic life and has brought in new departments, new professors, and national rules to effect this change.

In 1980, the university was relocated to the suburb of Saint-Denis, to the north of Paris. The university's capacity of 24,000 students per year makes "Paris VIII" an important university with internationally recognized departments in Philosophy, Political Sciences, Cinema Arts, Communication Studies, and Feminist Studies.

In 1992 and 1998, the University of Paris-VIII created two university technical institutes (in French: IUT), in Tremblay-en-France and Montreuil.

In 2008, the university, along with seven other humanities and social sciences institutions, launched a campus project to the north of Paris, with the aim of bringing together on the same site a common research facility in the humanities and social sciences. In 2009, this became the Condorcet Campus, which opens in 2019.^[9]

In 2024, the university inaugurated the renovation of Building C, marking the first energy-efficient renovation of a university service building in France using the Energiesprong method. This initiative aims to make the building fully energy self-sufficient for all its uses, with a 20-year performance guarantee.^{[10][11][12][13]}