For decades before the First World War, the world seemed to shrink. Millions of migrants crossed the globe. The railway and steamship accelerated their journeys, reducing the cost and risk of travel. The world also arrived on the doorsteps of those who stayed at home, via the telegraph, radio, newspapers, cinema, exhibitions, and foreign goods. To many observers, the growing interconnection of people and states seemed unstoppable. They believed that it would produce progress, prosperity, and peace. These illusions were shattered in 1914 when the First World War ushered in a quarter-century of anti-global retrenchment. This talk explores why so…

The Eurozone, Ukraine, refugees and Brexit – the European Union has had to confront and manage several major crises during the last decade. However, the outcomes of these crises in respect of political integration have been divergent. The Eurozone has become politically more closely integrated. The Ukraine crisis has not produced any significant effect one way or the other. In contrast, the refugee crisis has provoked some, albeit limited, political disintegration and, with Brexit, the EU is losing one of its three largest and most powerful member states. This divergent pattern of crisis outcomes is not easily explicable in terms…

Schul(d)en: Guilt, Debt, Education Stretching across 200,000 square feet in the heart of Berlin, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was inaugurated in 2005, sixty years after the European conclusion of World War II. The monument, funded by the German federal government at a cost of approximately €27 million, is a site of both remembrance and education for many, including students who receive tours and participate in workshops.   This year’s conference finds inspiration in the German word Schuld and its connotations of both ‘guilt’ and ‘debt’ in English, and further seeks to connect Schuld to education, and…

This is a multi-day conference (February 21-22, 10 am-4:30 pm)   Speakers include: Banu Bargu, Eleanor Kaufman, A. Kiarina Kordela, Warren Montag, Vittorio Morfino, Ted Stolze, and Massimiliano Tomba.   This two-day conference seeks to generate and examine the conceptual problems, questions and returns of the relationships (and non-relationships) of Marx and philosophy. What philosophical debts does Marx inherit or incur? How does Marx think and intervene in philosophy? What transformations occur in philosophy as a result of Marx’s interventions and how do these transformations, in turn, inflect the current philosophical conjuncture? We aim to determine the positions animating their…

This is a multi-day conference (February 21-22, 10 am-4:30 pm)   Speakers include: Banu Bargu, Eleanor Kaufman, A. Kiarina Kordela, Warren Montag, Vittorio Morfino, Ted Stolze, and Massimiliano Tomba.   This two-day conference seeks to generate and examine the conceptual problems, questions and returns of the relationships (and non-relationships) of Marx and philosophy. What philosophical debts does Marx inherit or incur? How does Marx think and intervene in philosophy? What transformations occur in philosophy as a result of Marx’s interventions and how do these transformations, in turn, inflect the current philosophical conjuncture? We aim to determine the positions animating their…

In the early 1900s, Germans discovered the richest diamond fields in history in the Protectorate of German Southwest Africa. Namibian diamonds quickly proved more than baubles. These tiny stones made an overlooked impact on the German colonial economy and even on German domestic politics. In addition, Namibian diamonds intersected with what has become a major topic of study: Germany’s genocidal campaign against the Nama and Herero peoples.   Steven Press is an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. He received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Recently, Steven has worked on two book projects:…