Numerous 19th-century socialist militants and theoreticians have in their biographies the vital experience of emigration. Indeed, it was a time when hundreds of revolutionaries, outlaws, workers, students, and others, crossed geographical and linguistic borders, taking part in intellectual exchanges and transnational political practices. Acting as speakers, translators, publishers, editors, and even smugglers in some cases, 19th-century socialists spawned a set of profoundly new political concepts and explanatory devices, which allowed them to interpret the world in various ways and to change it.
This two-day seminar aims to rethink the issues by focusing on intellectual and conceptual transfers, circulations, and exchanges within socialism(s) before the 1900s. The area of potential inquiry is thus vast as it encompasses ideas ‘on the move’, occurring both within the early (or romantic) phase of socialism and the modern (or Marxist) phase. Although, the potential area of inquiry is not strictly confined to exchanges within 19th-century socialism. Papers tackling reciprocal exchanges between socialism and science, religion or socialism, and other political currents (like republicanism or liberalism) are welcome. Proposals may likewise encompass empirical case studies and theoretical or methodological reflections, potentially enriching the knowledge of 19th-century socialism as a genuinely transnational phenomenon.
Exemplary Questions/Areas of Inquiry:
- 19th-century socialism as an area of intellectual hybridization, adaptation, and reappropriation.
- Cross-Fertilizations: Socialism and liberalism, socialism and republicanism, socialism and science, socialism and religions, etc.
- How did ‘wandering’ concepts transform themselves while traveling from one geographical or linguistic context to another?
- Directions of Transfers: Transfers from France or Great Britain to the outer regions of Europe and the world may be relatively easily identified, but were there any exchanges occurring in the opposite direction?
- Transnational Spaces: London, Paris, Geneva, and others.
- Exchanges Across Social Strata: Dialogues between the socialist intelligentsia and socialist workers.
- Intellectual Transfers Beyond Text: Banquets, music, songs, illustrations, and the like, as media of socialist circulations.
Smugglers and Customs Officers: What frictions could intellectual borrowings within socialism cause?
- Actors of Transfer: Editors, funders, translators, booksellers, printers, illustrators, and others.
- Were there any socialist concepts and ideas deeply rooted in their domestic setting and ‘motionless’ for certain reasons?
- Topography of Socialist Networks and Conceptual Flows: What would a map of socialist transfers in the 19th century look like?
The conference organizer will provide accommodation to all selected participants. If necessary, travel expenses may also be covered up to 1000 PLN (ca. 230 EUR).
The seminar results will be published in the form of a special issue of an international journal (in English). For this reason, all participants are expected to circulate their papers by the end of September 2022 at the latest.
The abstract, alongside a short CV (up to three pages), should be submitted to pkuligowski@ihpan.edu.pl by June 15, 2022.