Events

Upcoming Events

Manuscript workshop: Charlotte Johann, The Quest for Law – Friedrich Carl von Savigny between the German Constitution and International Law.

Tuesday 16th December, 2025

10am-6pm, East Court - iQ - Room 1.04 450 Mile End Road

You are warmly invited to a manuscript workshop hosted by the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought on 16 December, 10am-6pm.

Charlotte Johann (Leverhulme Early Career Scholar, School of Society and Environment, Department of History, QMUL):

The Quest for Law – Friedrich Carl von Savigny between the German Constitution and International Law.

The Quest for Law is a book about how law lives on in the absence of sovereignty. It recounts the story of how German jurists established a common regime of private law in Germany’s ‘stateless’ period, between the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the founding of the Kaiserreich in 1871. The book revolves around Friedrich Carl von Savigny and the historical school of law, one of the nineteenth century’s most influential legal movements, both in Germany and across the globe. It contextualises Savigny’s main achievements, from his fierce critique of codification to his contributions to Germany’s revival of Justinianic Roman Law, the rise of the German research university, and Prussian state-building. In doing so, the book presents a new account of the making of legal order in nineteenth century, tracing the fine line between common and international law, the law of the nation and the law of nations. Savigny’s jurisprudence, the book shows, embodied an approach to the rule of law that carried on the constitutional legacy of the Holy Roman Empire, resisting its eclipse by a ‘Westphalian’ state system. His intellectual trajectory both illuminates and complicates the construction of modern legal order along the distinctions of public versus private, municipal versus international, positive versus natural law. In exploring nineteenth-century Germany as a crucible for the possibility of a law that stretched between and across sovereign states, The Quest for Law establishes new connections between European intellectual history, the legal history of empires, and the history of international order.

Commentators:

Martti Koskenniemi (Helsinki), Michael Lobban (Oxford), Anna Ross (Sheffield), Georgios Varouxakis (QMUL).

The workshop will consist of a detailed chapter-by-chapter discussion of the manuscript. All are welcome, but registration is essential at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-quest-for-law-tickets-1848310098259?aff=oddtdtcreator

Past Events

A Symposium on Georgios Varouxakis, The West – October 24

Friday 24th October, 2025

3.00, Queens' Building, LG6, Queen Mary University of London

A symposium on Georgios Varouxakis’ new book The West: A History of an Idea to be held on October 24 at 3.00 pm in the Queens’ Building, LG6, on Queen Mary University of London campus. For details please see the Eventbrite link here

Please note that it is necessary to register for this event through the Eventbrite link. If you have any questions regarding the event, contact a.fitzmaurice@qmul.ac.uk

David Armitage, Ideological Origins of the British Empire – 25 years

Friday 16th May, 2025

3.00 until 6.00, GC601 Montagu LT (Graduate Centre), Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

We are delighted to announce an event on May 16 marking 25 years since the publication of David Armitage’s Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Speakers will include: Phil Stern; Sarah Mortimer; Monica Brito Vieira; Jessica Patterson; Samuel Zeitlin; and Richard Bourke. We shall take stock of changes in the scholarship on empire and political thought over that quarter century, while also discussing the salient issues.

Details below:

Time: 3.00 until 6.00, May 16, 2025

Venue:

GC601 Montagu LT (Graduate Centre), Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

To book, please follow this link

If you have any questions regarding this event, contact: a.fitzmaurice@qmul.ac.uk

Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal

Friday 25th April, 2025

15:00-17:00, David Sizer Lecture Theatre, Bancroft Building, QMUL

The Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought, at QMUL, is delighted to announce a symposium on Quentin Skinner’s Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal, on April 25th.

The symposium will run from 15.00 to 17.00 on April 25th. Speakers include: Valentina Arena; Hannah Dawson; Alan Coffee; Samuel Zeitlin; and Quentin Skinner.

The location will be the Bancroft Building at Queen Mary University of London, in the David Sizer Lecture Theatre (Room 106).

It is important to register on Eventbrite for this event – places are limited. For any further queries, please email a.fitzmaurice@qmul.ac.uk.

Lost in Time: Intellectual History Before the Guillotine

Thursday 10th April, 2025 – Friday 11th April, 2025

10:00-18:30, Wilkins Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL

Dear colleagues,

You are invited to attend the inaugural Lost in Time conference, examining pre-1789 intellectual history from a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary perspective. This conference will take place over two days at UCL, with Dr Dmitri Levitin delivering the keynote address, and gathers scholars covering millennia of premodern intellectual history, stretching from classical Greece to early modern Mexico, and from medieval Scottish theology to Renaissance optics – see the programme here – and is sure to contain something of interest to you (even for the modernists among us!). You can sign up for free tickets at this link, and all are very welcome.

2025 Rubinstein Lecture: Professor Jennifer Pitts

Thursday 27th March, 2025

18:15-20:00, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary University of London

We are delighted to announce the speaker and title for this year’s annual Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture! Professor Jennifer Pitts, of the University of Chicago, will be delivering a talk on ‘Abolition on the Eve of Revolution: Cugoano, Condorcet, Grouchy’, with opportunity for questions and discussion afterwards. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. If you wish to join us, it is still possible to register for your (free!) ticket through Eventbrite – simply follow this link.

This event is sponsored by the Centre of the History of Political Thought and the School of History, Queen Mary University of London.

Inaugural Lecture of Professor Georgios Varouxakis: “What On Earth Is ‘The West’?”

Tuesday 4th June, 2024

18:15-20:00, Peston Lecture Theatre, Graduate Centre, QMUL

The School of History and the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought Queen Mary University of London are delighted to invite you to the inaugural lecture of Professor Georgios Varouxakis, entitled What On Earth Is ‘The West’? It’s A Long Story…

“The West” is on everyone’s lips, but what does the term mean? Where is “it”? Who represents “it”? When did “the West” begin to be used as a socio-political concept? And, more importantly, why? Does it have a future? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or…? Who belongs to the West? Who decides? How many definitions of the West are there? Are they all valid, or all wrong? Does the polysemy of “the West” render it meaningless? Or could it still stand for something? — And, if the answer to the latter question is positive, what might it stand for? All these, and some more questions will be addressed in a brief lecture on a long story.

The lecture will be chaired by Professor Angus Gowland, and will be followed by a reception. Registration is necessary – you can do this by following this link.

Class, Language, and Utopia: An Event in honour of Professor Gareth Stedman Jones

Thursday 2nd May, 2024

15:00-18:00, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, QMUL

The School of History and the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought Queen Mary University of London are delighted to invite you to Class, Language, and Utopia: Histories of Political Change – An Event in honour of Professor Gareth Stedman Jones.

Speakers:

Conor A. Bollins (QMUL): “Poverty and Population Growth in the History of Social Welfare”
Emma Griffin (QMUL): “Working-class life in Nineteenth Century Britain: The influence of Outcast London and Languages of Class”
Adela Halo (UCL): “Ideas and History in the Shadow of the French Revolution”
Douglas Moggach (Ottawa/Sydney): “Answering the Social Question: Nineteenth-Century Debates”
Julia Nicholls (KCL): “Language and Nineteenth-Century Radicalism”
Niall O’Flaherty (KCL): “The End of Poverty revisited”

To be followed by a reception. Registration is necessary. Please register by following this link.

2024 Rubinstein Lecture: Prof Susan James

Friday 15th March, 2024

17:00-19:00, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, QMUL

We are delighted to announce that the 2024 Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture will be given on March 15 by Professor Susan James: “What’s really wrong with fake news? A Spinozist perspective”. The lecture shall be followed by a reception.

It is necessary to register in order to attend this lecture. Registration is via Eventbrite.

This lecture is sponsored by the Centre for the History of Political Thought and the School of History, Queen Mary University of London.

Class, Language, and Utopia: An Event Honouring Gareth Stedman Jones

Thursday 11th January, 2024

15:00-18:00, Peston Lecture Theatre, Graduate Centre, Queen Mary University of London

Please note, this event has been postponed. A rescheduled date will be circulated in due course.

The School of History and the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London are delighted to invite you to

Class, Language, and Utopia: Histories of Political Change
An Event in honour of Professor Gareth Stedman Jones

Speakers:

· Conor A. Bollins (QMUL): “Poverty and Population Growth in the History of Social Welfare”
· Emma Griffin (QMUL): “Working-class life in Nineteenth Century Britain: The influence of Outcast London and Languages of Class”
· Adela Halo (UCL): “Ideas and History in the Shadow of the French Revolution”
· Douglas Moggach (Ottawa/Sydney): “Answering the Social Question: Nineteenth-Century Debates”
· Julia Nicholls (KCL): “Language and Nineteenth-Century Radicalism”
· Niall O’Flaherty (KCL): “The End of Poverty revisited”

To be followed by a reception.

Please register here.