Ernesto Laclau

Ernesto Laclau (born 6 October 1935) is an Argentine political theorist often described as post-Marxist.

He studied History in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1964, and received a PhD from Essex University in 1977.

Since the 1970s he has been Professor of Political Theory at the University of Essex, where he founded and directed for many years the graduate programme in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, as well as the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Under his directorship, the Ideology and Discourse Analysis programme has provided the suitable research framework for the development of a distinct type of discourse analysis that draws on post-structuralist theory (especially the work of Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, and Barthes) in order to articulate innovative analyses of concrete political phenomena (identities, discourses and hegemonies). This theoretical and analytical orientation is today known as the 'Essex School of discourse analysis'.

Over the years, Laclau has lectured extensively in many universities in North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Most recently he has held positions at SUNY Buffalo and Northwestern Universities, both in the US.