What is Left of Marxism? Historiography and the Possibilities of Thinking with Marxian Themes and Concepts

Conference, 22-23 May 2018, Trier, Germany

 

Over the years, Marxist frameworks of analysis have retreated to the shrinking circles of vestigial communist parties, been muted by its practitioners in the interests of avoiding old Cold War polemics, or found their way at first or second remove into fields such as cultural studies, gender studies or postcolonial studies, where they are often disavowed.

This conference wishes to ask the question: what are the productive possibilities of thinking with Marxism today? To answer this question it is also necessary to have a clear picture of what Marxism has discussed and achieved in the field of historiography, and how much of this must be remembered and analysed in order to recover insights from earlier debates that have in the process of disavowal been forgotten.

Programme

Day 1, 22.05.2018 (Hotel Deutscher Hof, Trier)

08:45 Introductory remarks

PANEL A: MODES OF PRODUCTION BEFORE INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
Chair: Brigitta Bernet (Uni Basel u. Trier)
09:00-09:45 Kaveh Yazdani (Uni Bielefeld): Reading Marx in the Divergence Debate
Discussant: Benjamin Zachariah (Uni Trier)
09:45-10:30 Jorge Grespan (University of São Paulo): Marxism and the Debates on Slavery in Brazil
Discussant: Amar Baadj (Uni Bonn u. Trier)
11:00-11:45 Amar Baadj (Uni Bonn u. Trier): Mahmud Isma’il and his Historical-Materialist Approach to the History of the Medieval Islamic World
Discussant: Benjamin Zachariah (Uni Trier)
11:45-12:30 Mohammed Maraqten (Uni Heidelberg): Marxist Historiography and the Ancient Near East: The Impact of Marxist Writings on the Historical Interpretation of the Ancient Near East in Retrospect
Discussant: Amar Baadj (Uni Bonn u. Trier)
12:30-13:00 Final discussion for Panel A

PANEL B: CLASS CONFLICT AND SUBALTERN GROUPS
Chair: Benjamin Zachariah (Uni Trier)
14:30-15:15 Mischa Suter (Uni Basel): The Critique of Political Economy and the Politics of Moral Economy
Discussant: Josef Ehmer (Uni Wien)
15:15-16:00 Brigitta Bernet (Uni Basel u. Trier): From Meridionalismo to Microstoria: The Southern Question’s Impact on Italian Historiography
Discussant: Josef Ehmer (Uni Wien)
16:00-16:30 Final discussion for Panel B

PANEL C: MARXIST APPROACHES TO GLOBAL HISTORY
Chair: Lutz Raphael (Uni Trier)
17:00-17:45 Matthias Middell (Uni Leipzig): Marx and Today's Global History
Discussant: Benjamin Zachariah (Uni Trier)

Day 2, 23.05.2018 (Hotel Deutscher Hof, Trier)

09:00-09:45 Preben Kaarsholm (re:work HU Berlin): Marx, Globalisation, and the Reserve Army of Labour
Discussant: Josef Ehmer (Uni Wien)
09:45-10:00 David Mayer (Uni Wien/ IISG Amsterdam): Modes of Production - Past Debates and Future Potential of a Key Marxist Notion
Discussant: Benjamin Zachariah (Uni Trier)
10:45-11:15 Kavita Philip (UC Irvine): Marxist Techné? Tactical Lessons from the History of Science and Technology
Discussant: Lutz Raphael (Uni Trier)
11:15-11:45 Final discussion for Panel C

11:45-12:45 Concluding discussion

Please register by sending an email to fze@uni-trier.de (Forschungszentrum Europa, Trier University).

For more information, visit:
http://leibniz-forschergruppen.uni-trier.de/

 

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