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.

2023 London Graduate Conference

Thursday 22nd June, 2023 – Friday 23rd June, 2023

The 14th Annual London Graduate Conference will explore the way in which political thinkers and actors throughout history have understood the relationship between property and power.

The keynote lecture will be delivered by Sudhir Hazareesingh (Oxford) and the closing roundtable will feature Valentina Arena (UCL), Dina Gusejnova (LSE), Nicola Miller (UCL), and David Armitage (Harvard and QMUL).

The full programme for this conference can be found here. A plain-text version of the programme is also available here.

To register, please click here.

Manuscript Workshop: Catastrophic Technology in Cold War Political Thought

Tuesday 13th June, 2023

14:00 - 18:00, QMUL

A discussion of Dr Caroline Ashcroft’s forthcoming book: Catastrophic Technology in Cold War Political Thought (Edinburgh University Press).

Catastrophic Technology explores a critical idea of technology shared by many influential political thinkers of the Cold War era. This critique posits technology as a central but profoundly dangerous and even catastrophic force in contemporary politics and society. In the work of theorists including Theodor Adorno, Günther Anders, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Ellul, Martin Heidegger, Max Horkheimer, Hans Jonas, Herbert Marcuse, and Lewis Mumford, a form of technology particular to modernity appears as a transformational and exceptionally problematic influence on the contemporary world. This book asks the question of what this particular concept of technology means for these philosophers in political terms, arguing that their conceptualisation of technology is a mode of radical political critique. It was also, however, a sophisticated and developed theory of technology and its influence on politics and society. This book shows how this critique of technology was an important and substantive theme in political thought during the Cold War; one which brought together unlikely allies from across the ideological spectrum, and which has not been widely recognised as such in intellectual histories of the era to date.

All are welcome, but registration for this event is essential. Registered attendees will receive a copy of the draft manuscript by email prior to the event. Please register here.

New Book Symposium: Maurizio Isabella’s ‘Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions’

Thursday 18th May, 2023

16:00-19:00, QMUL Graduate Centre, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

The Centre for the History of Political Thought, as well as the Queen Mary School of History, are delighted to be co-hosting a new book symposium on Maurizio Isabella’s Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions (Princeton, 2023).

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