Where: Balam Balam Place, Room 401, 15 Phoenix Street, Brunswick.
When: 11am-1pm, Thursday 26th March 2026
Karl Marx's name has come to stand for a political movement of worldwide significance. Formations bearing Marx's name have changed the contours of twentieth century history, and they continue to shape today's political topography, perhaps again growing in influence. But if Marx and Marxism have come to be indissociable from politics of a certain kind, it would be equally true to say that this politics has been contested, from both without and within. Where does all of this leave the scholar of Karl Marx?
In this workshop, Marx and Engels scholar Terrell Carver will deliver a "Marx update", clueing us in to the latest developments in Marx scholarship. We'll then hear from a panel of four respondents, followed by a roundtable discussion. Join us for discussion on the relation of Marx to Marxism, on the tension, sometimes productive, sometimes harmful, between scholarship and politics, on the textual lives of writings which bear Marx's name, and on attempts to coordinate the three terms: Marx, Engels and Marx-Engels.
Respondents: Ali Alizadeh, Charles Barbour, Andy Blunden, and Brendan Duncan-Shah.
Registration will open closer to the event.
About Terry Carver
As a political theorist I have specialised in Marx, Engels and Marxism, and on philosophy and methodology of social science. In particular I have concentrated on textual work in order to raise standards of interpretation. Besides doing my own translations of Marx, I have addressed myself to investigating the exact roles played by Engels in the composition of the Marxian canon and in the interpretative tradition that surrounds it. In doing this I have engaged with deconstructionist and post-modern methodologies, following developments in feminist theory and reception studies particularly closely. Some of my work has employed feminist and men's studies perspectives on masculinities, and I have contributed to the political theory of sex, gender and sexuality, in particular in International Relations, since 1996.
