Historical Materialism Istanbul Conference: Three days full of dozens of engaging sessions. In addition to presenting my paper on Lukács, I was very pleased to participate in a panel marking the 25th anniversary of Praksis, a historical materialist social sciences journal published in Turkish.

Do you happen to be in Istanbul on 2 April, in the wake of the Historical Materialism Conference? You are kindly invited to our book launch "Versuche Lukács umzudenken", with the participation of our editor Hassan Maarfi Poor, at Istanbul University Faculty of Political Science (2 April, 12:30).

It is always a good idea to watch and listen to Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia to get myself into the mood for talking about Machiavelli and his time.

Ateş Uslu@atesuslu.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The first event of the semester: a seminar on Machiavelli, organised by the Political Philosophy Student Club at Istanbul University. The seminar will focus on a comparative study of the dedicatory letters of The Prince, Discourses on Livy, The Art of War, and Florentine Histories.

The first event of the semester: a seminar on Machiavelli, organised by the Political Philosophy Student Club at Istanbul University. The seminar will focus on a comparative study of the dedicatory letters of The Prince, Discourses on Livy, The Art of War, and Florentine Histories.

Ateş Uslu@atesuslu.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Nearing the end of a long sabbatical (16 months!), and preparing my return to Istanbul... It seems that I will be focusing on the 14th–18th centuries next semester: a course on political thought in that period,and a series of activities on Machiavelli (including at least a seminar and a conference).

A new syllabus: Readings in International Political Thought: Machiavelli in Text and Social Context atesuslu.com/wp-content/u...

The very last talk of my sabbatical period will be on “Lukács’ Social Ontology: Ontological Emergence and the Specificity of the Political". The background text is a very dense paper that Lukács wrote in 1968, in which he condenses, in 16 pages, the 1,600 pages of his Ontology.

Why does every day involve a fight with eduroam?

It is particularly ironic that 10 years ago, Kristi Sweet—who now discusses a colleague’s syllabus with College leadership and proposes the censorship of Plato readings—wrote an article that concludes with the paragraph cited above. Now tell us about liberal arts under duress, Dr. Sweet. Ridiculous.

Jonathan Birch@birchlse.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

2025 in four pictures. In the end, we keep coming back to the beginning - only to realize that the beginning has already been sublated. (Stuttgart, January (x2) - Tübingen, April - Stuttgart, December)

Nearing the end of a long sabbatical (16 months!), and preparing my return to Istanbul... It seems that I will be focusing on the 14th–18th centuries next semester: a course on political thought in that period,and a series of activities on Machiavelli (including at least a seminar and a conference).

2025’s final lecture focused on the early period of Islamic political thought (from its beginnings to al-Farabi). It was, in fact,an online guest lecture at Istanbul University. This gave me the opportunity to read some relatively recent publications on the socio-economic context. 3 wonderful reads:

Good point. Other examples that come to mind: Electra (tragedy) --> Elektra (opera) Salome (play) --> Salome (opera) I don't even like R. Strauss's music, but these are still masterpieces.

Chris Brooke@chrisbrooke.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Worth reflecting just how unusual it is for a masterpiece in one art form to be adapted into a masterpiece in another. Woyzeck (play) --> Wozzeck (opera) is one. Il Gattopardo (novel) --> (movie) is another. But there are really not many of these at all.

Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World – Online Lecture Series, 2026  The Cultures of Philosophy Team at the University of Exeter is excited to announce our new online lecture series, "Women Writing Knowledge: Philosophy in the Early Modern World". In recent years, the…

The deadline for next year's HM Istanbul has been extended!!! Due to overwhelming demand, we have decided to extend the deadline for submitting paper/panel proposals to 12 December 2025. Make sure to send us your abstracts, comrades! Further details from the HM Istanbul website below.

Historical Materialism Istanbul 2026

From Catastrophe to Struggle: Rethinking Capitalism amid Wars and Disasters

hmistanbul.org

Sounds exciting: **** [...]How could free persons be made into slaves? John Samuel Harpham shows that English authors found answers to this question in a tradition of ideas that stretched back to the ancient world, where they were most powerfully expressed in Roman law. [...]" ****

The true academic method: open 12 papers, read none of them, feel intellectually intimidated

Deadline for HM Istanbul extended!!! "Dear all, we are delighted by your interest in our conference. In response to requests, we are pleased to announce that we have extended the deadline by 10 days. The new deadline for paper and panel submissions is 3 December 2025." hmistanbul.org

Historical Materialism Istanbul 2026

From Catastrophe to Struggle: Rethinking Capitalism amid Wars and Disasters

hmistanbul.org

My final academic talk of 2025 is the fourth session in an online seminar series on Lukács’s Aesthetics (held in Turkish). We have been reading the dense text of The Specificity of the Aesthetic paragraph by paragraph, and we have only just reached the end of the first section of the first chapter.

A wonderful conference on "Hegel, Woman and Feminism" (20229. I was particularly amazed by Ankica Čakardić's speech. youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Hegel, Woman and Feminism (International Conference) - YouTube

youtube.com

I wonder why there is a frenzy about celebrating Spinoza’s birthday this year.

The comments section of any opera video on YouTube features a few recurring characters: 1. The Callas-fan bot 2. The contemporary-singer hater 3. The Pavarotti fan 4. The classical-staging enthusiast

Today and tomorrow: “Environmental Humanities Meets the History of Knowledge,” an interdisciplinary workshop organized at the University of Konstanz ( @uni-konstanz.de ). I will speak on “Reconsidering Nature: Lukács’s Ontological Turn and Its Contemporary Relevance,” alongside excellent colleagues.

The 1981 Stuttgart Hegel Congress—where D. Henrich, R. Spaemann, J. Habermas, and O. Pöggeler were keynote speakers, and where philosophers from the Eastern Bloc (Oizerman, Buhr...) presented alongside Gadamer, Rorty, Labarrière, and D’Hondt... We need to discuss more about the circulation of ideas.

Nicolas Tertulian was one of the foremost scholars of Lukács. The articles collected in this book are excellent examples of his ability to combine historical methods—marked by an erudite reading and contextualization of a variety of texts, especially those of Heidegger—with philosophical critique.

On board a Deutsche Bahn train heading to Berlin, in the midst of semi-insomnia, I check my itinerary and suddenly find myself transported to the late 19th- and early 20th-century history of German social democracy.

Truly and deeply honoured x.com/DeutscherPri...

The Deutscher Prize on X: "🚨 Prize winner 🚨 The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize committee is delighted to announce that Bruno Leipold’s “Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought” has been awarded this year’s prize 🎉 @BrunoLeipold @histmat" / X

🚨 Prize winner 🚨 The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Prize committee is delighted to announce that Bruno Leipold’s “Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought” has been awarded this year’s prize 🎉 @BrunoLeipold @histmat

x.com

This evening: A conference organized by the Chair of the History of Knowledge (Prof. Anne Kwaschik) at the University of Konstanz — “Translating Hitler,” by Olivier Mannoni.

How fascinating that this book was published just a few days before my session on "The Specter of the Haitian Revolution: Kant and Hegel on Slave Labour and the Racial Division of Labour." ☺️ ***** Hegel and Colonialism, by Daniel James and Franz Knappik. Open Access at cup.org/3LqOwGa

Hegel and Colonialism

Cambridge Core - Ancient Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism

cup.org

Today is Halloween. On All Hallows' Eve in 1590, Scottish authorities claimed 200 witches tried to prevent King James from reaching his bride in Denmark. Dozens were arrested & tortured, and 1000s killed in an era of sexist witch-hunts. Learn more here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/wit...