Date: September 30-October 1, 2022

Location: Meadville Lombard Theological School (180 N. Wabash Ave. Suite 700)

Co-sponsors: The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, The Center for Political Theology at Villanova University, Political Theology Network, Meadville Lombard Theological School

Covid protocol: Masks are required. Disinfecting wipes and additional masks will be available. 

Description

Long vilified as an obstacle to freedom, the term “socialism” conjures communist autocracy, traditionalist utopia, and economic stagnation. Yet in recent years, the “millennial” generation, with little memory of socialist fear or failure, has revived desires for socialism in response to income disparity, racial inequality, and capitalist empire. This popular resurgence of socialist aspirations prompts us to ask: What moral vocabularies of equality, dignity, and welfare does socialism generate? How do socialist movements and visions for transformation build on political ideals of sovereignty and counter-sovereignty? And finally, what are the transnational and international dimensions of socialism that make it into a global phenomenon, at times exceeding the boundaries of nationalisms and nation-states?

This workshop asks how socialist aspirations relate to socialist practices. To this end, we will engage socialism’s plural expressions across various domains of historical memory (e.g., commemorations of revolution and war), political aesthetics (e.g., rhetoric, performing arts), and social organization (e.g., labor movements, mass communications, urban planning). Our focused conversation around sovereignty, ethics, and global politics will further interdisciplinary lines of collaboration toward understanding salient connections between different archival and ethnographic sites of socialism worldwide.

Invited Participants

Convenors:

Angie Heo (University of Chicago)

Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University)

Authors:

Harlan Chambers (Illinois Wesleyan University)

Morgan Liu (Ohio State University)

Eduardo Mendieta (Penn State University)

Elías Ortega (Meadville Lombard Theological School)

Özge Serin (Whitman College)

Emily Wilcox (College of William & Mary)

Respondents:

Benjamin Balthaser (Indiana University, South Bend)

Michael Hogue (Meadville Lombard Theological School)

Lucia Hulsether (Skidmore College)

Paola Iovene (University of Chicago)

Santiago Slabodsky (Hofstra University)

Matthew Vega (University of Chicago)