Seminars and events

Our regular interdisciplinary seminar series, teach-ins and conferences act as a focus for cooperative research for both staff and students and feature visiting and Glasgow-based speakers. The seminars and events are open to the public. Watch recordings of talks at the Centre here. A full archive of past seminars and events can be found here.

In 2020-21

Wednesday 10 March 2021, 5-7pm: The Writings and Legacy of Robin Murray: Simon Murray in conversation with Michael Rustin, Hilary Wainwright and John Restakis

 
The Selected Writings of Robin Murray (1940-2017), edited by Michael Rustin, was published late in 2020 and this seminar celebrates both the man and his radical thinking and practice through these writings and beyond. Robin was a Socialist economist concerned with social relations of production and consumption and how these habitually have been neglected by conventional economics. Unusually, he was both theorist and practitioner, a rigorous but poetic thinker, an endlessly curious, reflective and inventive activist. Robin’s working life of almost 50 years spanned a multitude of activities including: consultant/researcher at Sussex University’s Institute of Development Studies, Chief Economic Advisor to the Greater London Council (GLC) under Ken Livingston, teacher at Dartington’s Schumacher college, working with cooperatives, waste recycling, fair trade, municipal enterprise, shop steward combine committees, ethical consumption and much else. This seminar brings together four of Robin's close friends and collaborators to discuss some key dimensions of his thinking and practice.

Friday 16 April 2021, 2-4pm: Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter on Reactionary Democracy

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aurelien-mondon-aaron-winter-on-mainstream-racism-and-far-right-populism-tickets-134997508181

Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter will discuss their latest book Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream (Verso 2020) 

Tuesday 23 February 2021, 5-7pm: A Seminar on the Economy and the Impending Financial Crisis, led by Hillel Ticktin and Christine Cooper 

Hillel Ticktin speaks on the political and economic stagnation of US globalism and Christine Cooper concentrates on tax and crony capitalism. View the recording here.

 Hillel Ticktin is Professor Emeritus of Marxist Studies at the University of Glasgow, and the founding editor of Critique.

Christine Cooper is Chair of Accounting and Director of Research at the University of Edinburgh.

Friday 29 January 2021, 3-5pm: The Black Lives Matter Movement and the Reshaping of Discussions of Race, Class and Gender: A Seminar with Peter Hudis 

The explosion of mass protests throughout the U.S. in 2020 in response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breoanna Taylor and many others has brought previously marginalized campaigns, such as demands for defunding police and prison abolition, to the forefront of public discussion and debate. This presentation will explore how these ongoing developments provide a critical vantage point for envisioning alternatives to racialized capitalism that go beyond the politics of recognition and proposals for economic redistribution.

Peter Hudis is a Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Oakton Community College and author of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism and Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades. He co-edited The Power of Negativity: Selected Writings on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx, by Raya Dunayevskaya and The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, as well as The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg. He is General Editor of The Complete Works of Luxemburg and has edited Volume 1 and co-edited Volumes 2, 3, and 4 of the series. 

You can watch the recording here.

4 December 2020 (3-6pm): ‘Internationalism, Nationalism, Imperialism: A Symposium on Rosa Luxemburg’, co-organized by Henry R. Holland, a translator and editorial board member for The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg (Verso). Watch the recording of the session here

Speakers:

Brendan McGeever, ‘Race, Class and Revolution: Rosa Luxemburg's Confrontations With Antisemitism’  (Brendan McGeever is Lecturer in Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution, published by Cambridge University Press (2019))

Rory Scothorne, ‘Devolution Betrayed?: Luxemburg, Gramsci and the Scottish Question’(Rory Scothorne is completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh on the relationship between the radical left and Scottish nationalism. He has written about contemporary Scottish and British politics for the London Review of Books, The Guardian, the New Statesman and Tribune)

Rida Vaquas, ‘The National Question and the Working Class Party: Rosa Luxemburg’s Perspective’  (Rida Vaquas is a socialist activist and an MPhil student at the University of Cambridge. She mainly writes about the Second International and the histories of German socialism and communism. She is on the editorial board of Prometheus Journal and Luxemburg's Collected Works, and also contributes translations to Cosmonaut) 

20 November 2020 (2-4pm): ‘The Clamour of Nationalism: A Discussion with Sivamohan Valluvan’.  Watch the recording of the session here

23 October 2020 (2-4pm): ‘Insurgent Empire: A Discussion with Priyamvada Gopal’.  (For the recording, please contact Vassiliki Kolocotroni) 

For more information on the series, contact 

Vassiliki Kolocotroni and Dave Featherstone