Comparative Political Theory Workshop

Critical Political Thought in the Age of Declining Empires: African, Asian, Islamic, and Russian Perspectives

Organization:   Faculty of Philosophy, in collaboration with Globalisation Studies Groningen

This two-day workshop intends to strengthen the budding interdisciplinary and international research community in Comparative Political Theory and Intellectual History. More specifically, the workshop aims to help incubate collaborative research and instructional projects. It will focus on a critical period for the evolution of political thought in various parts of the world when age-old empires were confronted with European power and ideas during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. How did creative intellectuals reinterprete and reframe their own traditions in the face of power and ideas coming from overseas?

Comparative Political Theory brings together scholars studying intellectual developments and interactions or encounters from the point of view of a global intellectual landscape, rather than as isolated traditions or comparing only ‘the West’ and ‘the Rest’. By studying political ideas and practices in diverse contexts and traditions, we hope to identify differences, affinities, similarities, and changing trends in the elaboration of key political notions such as ‘state’, ‘citizen’, ‘nation’, or ‘constitutionalism’.

The workshop will feature scholars from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Turkey, and is open to guests. It is organised in connection with Vasileios Syros’s NWO Visiting Fellowship at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, and Prof. Toru Takenaka’s research stay at Groningen. The ultimate objective of the event is to connect our research agendas and to identify avenues for further collaborative actions.

Registration (max. 25 participants): p.boele rug.nl

When & where?

April 25 and 26, 2016 view full programme
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Oude Boteringestraat 38