The Centre for the Study ofthe History of Political Thought

Annual International Symposia in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The symposia are organised by Quentin Skinner and Georgios Varouxakis under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought and the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London. They have been run annually since 2009.

Past Events

2020 Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Tuesday 28th April, 2020

Please note, this event has been postponed.

The 2020 Annual Book Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences will be dedicated to:

Noel Malcolm’s
Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)

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2018 Annual Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences on Quentin Skinner’s From Humanism to Hobbes

Friday 23rd November, 2018

13:30 – 19:30, Senate Room, Senate House, University of London, Malet St, WC1E 7HU

Please join us for the 2018 Queen Mary Annual Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This year will be dedicated to Professor Quentin Skinner’s book From Humanism to Hobbes: Studies in Rhetoric and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Registration is essential.

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Symposium on the work of Martin E. Jay

Friday 15th June, 2018

We are pleased to announce the programme for the Centre’s Annual International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which will be held on Friday, 15 June 2018. The symposium is devoted to the work of Professor Martin E. Jay (Berkeley), and registration is essential. To download the conference programme, please click here. For the conference poster, please click here.

Symposium on Gareth Stedman Jones’ Karl Marx, Greatness and Illusion

Friday 21st April, 2017

9:30 am - 6:00pm, Queen Mary Graduate Centre Room 201

We are pleased to announce the Annual Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences on Gareth Stedman Jones’ Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (Allen Lane, Penguin: 2016). To view the poster for the event, please click here.

The speakers are:

Gareth Stedman Jones (QMUL)
Warren Breckmann (Penn)
Douglas Moggach (Ottawa/Sydney)
Julia Nicholls (Oxford)
Shannon C. Stison (Georgetown)

To view the programme, please click hereRegistration is essential.

Symposium on sovereignty and human rights

Friday 15th January, 2016

9.30 - 17.00 (followed by a reception), Senate House, University of London

This year's Annual Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences will be held on on 15 January 2016, on the theme of Sovereignty and Human Rights.

The Symposium will consider two new books: Richard Tuck's The Sleeping Sovereign and Samuel Moyn's Christian Human Rights.

Registration is essential, so please book in advance here.

More Information …

Seventh Annual International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Friday 24th April, 2015

9.30am - 7pm, Woburn Room, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

This year’s symposium focused on recent work by Professor Seyla Benhabib.

Download programme (pdf)

Sixth International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Friday 10th January, 2014

9.30am - 7pm, Woburn Room, Senate House, University of London

This symposium focused on recent work by Prof. Bryan Garsten (Yale) and Prof. Nadia Urbinati (Columbia) on the themes of Liberalism and Democracy. The speakers were Nadia Urbinati, Bryan Garsten, John Dunn, Monica Brito Vieira, Gareth Stedman Jones and Georgios Varouxakis.

Download programme (pdf)

Fifth International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Friday 11th January, 2013

9.30am - 7.30pm, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

This one-day symposium was dediated to Noel Malcolm’s Clarendon edition of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan. Speakers included Noel Malcolm, Kinch Hoekstra, Monica Brito Vieira, David Scott and Jonathan Parkin.

Download invitation and programme (pdf)

Fourth International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Friday 13th January, 2012

10am - 5pm, Room 349/350 Senate House Malet Street London WC1E 7HU

The Fourth International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences focused on Reasoning and Personhood: Some Themes in the Recent Work of Ian Hacking.’ Speakers at the event were John Forrester, Sarah Franklin, Alexander Bird, Rachel Cooper, and Ian Hacking.

Download invitation (pdf)    Download programme (doc)    Download list of readings (doc)

Third International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Friday 14th January, 2011

10am - 5pm, G22-26 Senate House Malet Street London WC1E 7HU

The Third International Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences focused on recent work by Richard Tuck and Jeremy Waldron under the general rubric of ‘Political Thought and Democratic Theory’.

Download invitation (pdf)