News
March 2024
Inaugural Lecture of Professor Georgios Varouxakis: “What On Earth Is ‘The West’?”
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.
January 2024
History of Political Ideas Seminar: Winter Term 2024
We are pleased to release the Winter term card for the History of Political Ideas Seminar. For the full schedule, details of the venues, and registration, please click here.
CFP: 2024 London Graduate Conference
Call for Papers: Utopias and Dystopias in the History of Political Thought
15th Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought
Keynote speaker: Professor Duncan Bell
Location: Ambrose Fleming Lecture Theatre, Roberts Building, UCL
Date: Thursday 20th-Friday 21st June, 2024 (more…)
Event Postponement
The School of History and the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary University of London sincerely regret to have to announce that, due to the very late announcement (on Sunday night) of the suspension of the London Underground strike planned for this week, we had to postpone the event that was scheduled to take place on Thursday 11 January: Class, Language, and Utopia: Histories of Political Change — an Event in honour of Professor Gareth Stedman Jones.
When a new date has been agreed we will make an announcement and issue a new invitation.
Thank you for your understanding.
December 2023
Andrew Fitzmaurice to take up fellowship at NYU
Prof. Andrew Fitzmaurice will hold a TEFE Fellowship at the Remarque Institute, based at NYU, for the duration of the 2024 Spring semester.
For more details, click here.
October 2023
Caroline Ashcroft at Cambridge CPT Seminar
Dr Caroline Ashcroft will speak at the Cambridge Centre for Political Thought on 30 October 2023. Her paper is entitled ‘Technology, Environment, and Crisis: “Catastrophic Technology” and the Environmental Movement’. Professor David Runciman will provide comment. For further details, please click here.
History of Political Ideas ECR Seminar: Autumn Programme
We are pleased to share the programme for the upcoming term of the ECR History of Political Ideas seminar. The series begins on 11 October with a paper from Erik de Lange (KCL). For more details, please see the IHR website.
September 2023
History of Political Ideas Seminar: Autumn 2023 Programme
The IHR’s History of Political Ideas Seminar resumes on 4 October. To view the programme and register for the seminars, please click here.
March 2023
The Future of Intellectual History: A Celebration of Quentin Skinner’s London Years
Queen Mary’s Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought is pleased to invite you to a celebration of Prof. Quentin Skinner’s career in London on 10 May.
January 2023
CFP: Property and Power in the History of Political Thought
The 14th Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought will explore the theme of ‘Property and Power’.
Keynote speaker: Dr. Sudhir Hazareesingh
Roundtable speakers: Prof. Valentina Arena (UCL), Dr. Dina Gusejnova (LSE), Prof. Nicola Miller, and Prof. David Armitage
Location: 1-19 Torrington Place, G13, UCL
Date: Thursday 22 – Friday 23 June 2023
October 2022
Prof. David Armitage joins the Centre as Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow
Professor David Armitage will be an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary for the academic year 2022-23.
To view Prof. Armitage’s profile, please click here.
September 2022
Autumn Programme: History of Political Ideas Seminars
The autumn programmes for the History of Political Ideas Seminar and the Early Careers Seminar in the History of Political Ideas are now available to view on the IHR website. Seminars will occur in person, either at the IHR or at UCL, on Wednesdays at 17:30. Please see the individual listings for the precise location of each session.
May 2022
13th Annual London Graduate Conference in HPT
Registration is now open for the Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought, which takes place in person at UCL (30 June to 1 July 2022).
The keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Adom Getachew (University of Chicago).
A PDF version of the full programme is available here.
Booking is essential. To register, please click here.
April 2022
Rethinking Liberty: a colloquium and reception
An in-person colloquium at King’s College London to reflect on different ways of thinking about liberty. The colloquium will be followed by a reception to celebrate the work of Quentin Skinner and to mark the publication of Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism, edited by Hannah Dawson and Annelien de Dijn (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
February 2022
History of Political Ideas Seminar 2022
Book symposium: Andrew Fitzmaurice’s ‘King Leopold’s Ghostwriter’
The Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought and the Schools of Law and History at Queen Mary University of London are delighted to co-host a New Book Symposium on Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice’s ‘King Leopold’s Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century‘ (Princeton University Press, 2022).
The event is organised by Professor Maksymilian Del Mar (QMUL) and Professor Georgios Varouxakis (QMUL).
Speakers:
Professor David Armitage (Harvard)
Professor Michael Lobban (LSE)
Professor Lisa Siraganian (Johns Hopkins)
Dr. Inge Van Hulle (Max Planck, Frankfurt)
Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice (QMUL)
Chaired by Professor Quentin Skinner (QMUL) and Professor Maksymilian Del Mar (QMUL).
Date & Time: Friday 13 May 2022, 16.00 – 19.00, followed by a reception in the Arts Two SCR.
Venue: Room GC201, Graduate Centre, Queen Mary University of London
Booking is essential. To book, please click here.
Book launch: Caroline Ashcroft’s ‘Violence and Power in the Thought of Hannah Arendt’
Queen Mary’s Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought and School of History are delighted to host the launch of Dr Caroline Ashcroft’s (QMUL) ‘Violence and Power in the Thought of Hannah Arendt’ (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). The event is organised by Dr Waseem Yaqoob (QMUL).
Speakers:
Dr Caroline Ashcroft (QMUL)
Professor Kimberley Hutchings (QMUL)
Dr Andrew Schaap (Exeter)
Dr Waseem Yaqoob (QMUL)
Chaired by Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice (QMUL).
Time: Tuesday 22 March 2022, 17.15 – 18.30, followed by a reception in the Senior Common Room
Venue: 1.12 Laws Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
Please register to attend here.
January 2022
Andrew Fitzmaurice at the Cambridge World History Seminar
Prof. Andrew Fitzmaurice will speak about his new book, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton University Press), at the Cambridge World History Seminar on 10 February 2022 from 17:00 to 19:00 GMT.
For more information, please click here.
History of Political Ideas Seminar Term 2
Registration is now open for Term 2 of the History of Political Ideas Seminar.
Covid permitting, all seminars will be run in hybrid format, on Zoom and (with limited capacity) in-person, with venues in London TBC. Please register via the listings on the IHR website. Registration is a must if you wish to attend in-person, as numbers are limited. Links to join via Zoom will be circulated to registered attendees on the day.
December 2021
New book by Dr Caroline Ashcroft
We’re pleased to announce the publication of a new book by Dr Caroline Ashcroft, entitled Violence and Power in the Thought of Hannah Arendt (Penn Press, 2021)
For more information, please click here.
CFP: London Graduate Conference in HPT
The 13th Annual London Graduate Conference will explore the theme of ‘Classes and Masses in the History of Political Thought‘.
The conference will take place in person at UCL (Gustave Tuck LT, Wilkins Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT) from 30 June to 1 July 2022. The keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Adom Getachew (University of Chicago), and Prof. Gareth Stedman Jones (QMUL) will deliver the opening remarks.
New book by Prof. Andrew Fitzmaurice
We are pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice’s King Leopold’s Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton University Press) – an intellectual biography of Victorian jurist Travers Twiss, who provided the legal justification for the creation of the brutal Congo Free State.
For more information, please click here.
November 2021
Panel Discussion: Gareth Stedman Jones’ ‘Outcast London’ after 50 years
Next month the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary’s Modern British Seminar and the Raphael Samuel Seminar are hosting an online event with a panel of distinguished speakers to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Professor Gareth Stedman Jones’ Outcast London.
The event will take place at 18:30 UK time on Wednesday 8 December. To view the programme and to register, please click here.
October 2021
Georgios Varouxakis at the Global Intellectual History Seminar
Professor Georgios Varouxakis will deliver a lecture at the Amsterdam-Utrecht Global Intellectual History Seminar on Friday 26 November at 16:00 CET. The lecture is entitled ‘“Western Civilization” in the Thought of Afro-American and Francophone Black Intellectuals – from the Great War to the Early Cold War’.
To view the abstract and to register for the online session, please click here.
September 2021
History of Political Ideas Seminar Programme 2021-22
Please find below the programme for this year’s IHR History of Political Ideas seminar.
June 2021
Conference: Quentin Skinner’s ‘Meaning and Understanding’ after 50 years
Quentin Skinner’s classic 1969 essay ‘Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’ was a ground-breaking challenge to prevailing ideas about how to read historical texts, and helped found an influential school of interpretation. Fifty years on, the essay is probably the most widely read article in the area and continues to breed debate. This British Academy conference on 7–8 July 2021 will critically examine the essay and its legacy.
Quentin Skinner at The Venice World Multidisciplinary Conference on Republics and Republicanism
Professor Quentin Skinner will deliver the keynote lecture at the Venice World Multidisciplinary Conference on Republics and Republicanism, taking place virtually from 11–13 June 2021 and hosted by Venice International University. The lecture is entitled ‘On so-called “republican” liberty and rights’.
For more information and to register, please click here.
May 2021
Programme and Registration for the London Graduate Conference
Registration is now open for the 12th Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought.
The programme is available here.
To register, please visit the Eventbrite page here.
April 2021
History of Political Ideas Seminar Programme
The Summer Term programme for the IHR Seminar in the History of Political Ideas is now available to view online.
Please register for upcoming seminars via the IHR website.
March 2021
Waseem Yaqoob at University of Manchester
Dr Waseem Yaqoob will take part in a new symposium on ‘Legacies in Intellectual History’ at the University of Manchester. He will be speaking on ‘An inheritance with no testament: reading Hannah Arendt from Cold War to Arab Spring’.
The symposium takes place via Zoom on 19 April 2021, 15:00-19:00 BST.
Please register here.
Quentin Skinner at the European University Institute
Prof. Quentin Skinner will deliver a lecture entitled ‘On Civil Liberty and Fundamental Rights: A Neo-Roman Approach’ at the EUI. The lecture, hosted by the Intellectual History Working Group and chaired by Thomas Ashby (EUI), takes place via Zoom on 12 April 2021 at 14:00 GMT+1/15:00 CEST.
For more details and to register, click here.
Book launch: Conquering Peace
On Wednesday 24 March, Prof. Stella Ghervas (Newcastle) presents her book Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union (Harvard UP, 2021) at the History of Political Ideas Seminar.
Discussant: Georgios Varouxakis (QMUL)
Please register here.
History of Political Ideas Seminar at the IHR
After a brief hiatus, the History of Political Ideas Seminar resumes this Wednesday 10 March with a paper by Dina Gusejnova (LSE), entitled ‘Republicanism in twentieth-century German political thought’.
Please register via the IHR website.
January 2021
CfP: 12th Annual London Graduate Conference in HPT
The 12th Annual London Graduate Conference, 24-25 June 2021, will explore the theme of ‘Emergency in the History of Political Thought’. View the Call for Papers here.
For any queries, please contact the Organising Committee via email: historyofpoliticalthoughtnet@gmail.com.
IHR Seminar Programme for Winter 2021
The Winter 2021 programmes for the Institute of Historical Research History of Political Ideas Seminar and the History of Political Ideas – Early Careers Seminar are now available online.
All seminars will take place online. Please book in advance via the IHR website.
The HPI seminar programme is available here. The ECR seminar programme can be viewed here.
October 2020
Autumn Programme for IHR Seminar in the History of Political Ideas
The Term 1 programme for the IHR Seminar in the History of Political Ideas is now available online.
For more details and to register, click here.
August 2020
Registrations for London Graduate Conference in HPT now open
The 2020 London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought will take place on Friday 18 September via Zoom. Prof. Katrina Forrester (Harvard) will deliver the keynote address.
To view the full programme and register, click here.
April 2020
London Graduate Conference in HPT postponed
The 11th Annual London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought on ‘Limits and Boundaries in HPT’ has been postponed to 18 September 2020. It will take place online via Zoom. The committee is accepting applications until 9 May.
For more details, click here.
February 2020
Conference: Quentin Skinner’s ‘Meaning and Understanding’ after 50 years
Quentin Skinner’s 1969 essay ‘Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas’ was a groundbreaking challenge to textual interpreters. This British Academy conference on 22-23 July 2020 will critically examine the essay and its legacy.
The conference is aimed both at traditional audiences (historians, philosophers and political theorists) and new audiences. For more details and to register, click here.
2020 Symposium in the Humanities and Social Sciences
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)
January 2020
2020 Rubinstein Lecture: Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Please note, the 2020 Rubinstein Lecture has been cancelled.
We are pleased to announce the details of the 2020 Annual Rubinstein Lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Distinguished Professor and Irving and Jean Stone Endowed Chair in Social Sciences, UCLA) on 26 March 2020. The title for the lecture is “Sceptical Views of Early Modern Empire in Europe and Beyond”.
The lecture will be chaired by Professor Andrew Fitzmaurice (QMUL).
London Graduate Conference in the History of Political Thought
We are pleased to share the Call for Papers for the 11th Annual London Graduate Conference in HPT, which will explore the theme of ‘Limits and Boundaries in the History of Political Thought‘.
The conference takes place on 18-19 June 2020 and the keynote address will be delivered by Professor Katrina Forrester (Harvard).
To view the CfP, click here.
February 2019
2019 Rubinstein Lecture: Professor Melissa Lane
We are pleased to announce the details of the 2019 Annual Rubinstein Lecture:
Chair: Professor Quentin Skinner, Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities, QMUL
Speaker: Professor Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics & Director, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Title: ‘Lycurgus, Solon, Charondas…: Figuring the legislator in Platonic political thought and its aftermath’
To be followed by a reception. Please register here.
November 2018
Georgios Varouxakis at Cambridge and Paris
Professor Georgios Varouxakis will speak at Cambridge’s Global Intellectual History seminar on the 6th of November and the German Historical Institute in Paris’s Séminaire de recherche sur les Lumières on the 12th of November. Please follow the links above for more details.
October 2018
Lecturer in the History of Political Thought
By appointing in the twentieth century, the research cluster aims to strengthen further our expertise in the field of political ideas since 1890. The successful candidate will be expected to teach in the general history of political thought and intellectual history at undergraduate level, but to be able to supervise in the twentieth century at Masters and PhD level. Active participation in the activities of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought will be expected.
For more details, please click here.
September 2018
Georgios Varouxakis ULIP-QMUL Paris Lecture
The lecture will first offer a brief genealogy of the idea of “the West” as a socio-political idea. The different uses of the term throughout its history will be analyzed and the contexts and reasons for its several metamorphoses will be scrutinized. The differences between the employment of “the West” in English and “l’Occident” in French will be focused on and the impact of French on English uses will be explored. Then the lecture will focus on the most explicit, thorough and systematic elaboration of a concrete idea of “the West” as a self-description (in preference to “Europe” or “Christendom”) and as a political project, in the mid-nineteenth century — with particular emphasis on the thought of the founder of Positivism and Sociology, Auguste Comte. Finally, the lecture will highlight the prominent role of the city of Paris in that story.
For more details, please click here.
August 2018
7th London Summer School in Intellectual History Keynote Addresses
We are pleased to announce the details of the keynote addresses for the 7th London Summer School in Intellectual History. The keynotes are open to all, but registration is essential.
Opening Keynote Lecture: Tuesday 4th September, Professor Quentin Skinner (QMUL), ‘Interventions and ideologies: an approach to intellectual history’, register here.
Closing Keynote Lecture: Friday 7th September, Professor Barbara Taylor (QMUL), ‘Philosophical Solitude’, register here.
May 2018
Georgios Varouxakis at the Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne
Professor Varouxakis will also deliver an invited lecture at the conference on “Mill et la Révolution” at the Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne, taking place on 25 and 26 May 2018. Professor Varouxakis’ lecture is titled ‘“The Revolution…is not English”: What did Mill think he learnt from observing France for half a century?’.
March 2018
Call for applications: 8th London Summer School in Intellectual History
The London Summer School in Intellectual History
The Annual London Summer School in Intellectual History is a rare opportunity for graduate students to acquire further training in the discipline and its different methodologies, as well as to meet a great number of academics and graduate students working in many different fields in intellectual history and related sub-disciplines. The Annual Summer School, which usually runs in September, includes:
- Special workshops on methodological approaches to intellectual history
- Masterclasses discussing texts distributed and read in advance
- Feedback on current research (following brief student presentations)
- Advice on writing and publishing
- A colloquium
Applications are welcome from doctoral students in intellectual history and related disciplines (the history of philosophy, literature, politics, law, political science, Classics) as well as MA/MSc students intending to conduct future research in this area. London is now one of the leading international centres of research and teaching in the history of political thought and intellectual history with a dedicated graduate programme and year-round research seminars, conferences, and workshops. The Summer School, now in its ninth year, is run jointly by University College London (UCL) and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
February 2018
Quentin Skinner’s From Humanism to Hobbes
We are pleased to announce the publication of Professor Quentin Skinner’s From Humanism to Hobbes: Studies in Rhetoric and Politics. The collection aims to illustrate the pervasive influence of humanist rhetoric on early-modern literature and philosophy. The first half of the book focuses on the classical rules of judicial rhetoric. One chapter considers the place of these rules in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, while two others concentrate on the technique of rhetorical redescription, pointing to its use in Machiavelli’s The Prince as well as in several of Shakespeare’s plays, notably Coriolanus. The second half of the book examines the humanist background to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. A major new essay discusses his typically humanist preoccupation with the visual presentation of his political ideas, while other chapters explore the rhetorical sources of his theory of persons and personation, thereby offering new insights into his views about citizenship, political representation, rights and obligations and the concept of the state. Continue reading