Events

The Trust is delighted to announce that this year’s Amiel & Melburn lecture will be given by Michael Hardt of Duke University. Hosted by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Hardt’s lecture will draw from his latest book, The Subversive Seventies – a bold reconstruction of the history of revolutionary politics in the 1970s. The event will be followed by a drinks reception and will be live streamed for those outside London.

This event has now passed but you can watch a recording via this link

Michael Hardt ‘The Subversive 1970s: The End of Mediation and Experiments in Autonomy’

In the 1970s activists in several countries conceived as “the end of mediation” the fact that protest and other forms of contestation were no longer being addressed with reforms by the state and other social institutions. One response to this situation was to experiment with autonomous forms of organization, both in factories and in various sectors of social reproduction and development. This lecture will explore what relevance these experiences of the 1970s hold for political possibilities today.

Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University.  He is co-author of several books with Antonio Negri, including ‘Empire’.  His most recent book is ‘The Subversive Seventies’.  Together with Sandro Mezzadra he hosts The Social Movements Lab.

The event is a lecture followed by a wine reception.

Doors open: 5.45 pm
Talk starts: 6.15 pm

The annual lecture is organised by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and supported by Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust.

This event is free and open to all but registration is required. Please click on the ‘book your place’ link at the top of the page to secure your place.

Michael will be speaking at an all day Culture, Power, Politics symposium, The Radical 1970s to coincide with his new book the following day on 9th December at Birkbeck. More details here

JODI DEAN ‘BECOMING NEOFEUDAL: THE INNER LOGIC OF COMMUNICATIVE CAPITALISM’ – AMIEL & MELBURN TRUST ANNUAL LECTURE

When: 17 June 2022, 18:00 — 21:00
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

Book your place

The end of the twentieth century heralded a new information age of networked participatory democracy. A quarter century later, we complain about being addicted or tethered to our phones, dependent on “big tech” overlords who extract from us our information, money, and time. What happened? This lecture answers the question by setting out the neofeudalizing tendencies of communicative capitalism.

Jodi Dean is a Visiting Fellow at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. She is a Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and has held the position of Erasmus Chair of the Humanities at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. She is the author of nine books, including ‘Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies’ (2009), ‘Blog Theory’ (2010), and ‘Comrade’ (2019).

The event is a lecture followed by a free wine reception.

Doors open: 5.30 pm
Talk starts: 6.00 pm

The annual lecture is organised by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and supported by Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust.

This event is free and open to all but registration is required. Please click on the ‘book your place’ link at the top of the page to secure your place.

Due to popular non-London-based demand, the lecture will also be livestreamed. You can attend and participate virtually by clicking on this link tomorrow, at 6pm. 

Edinburgh people’s festival presents, on the 80th anniversary of his death…

The life and legacy of Antonio Gramsci

with Gianluigi Deiana and Gabriella Cuccu Gramsci Museum, Sardinia

Tickets: edinburghpeoplesfestival.org

Sponsored by the city’s trade union movement and The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust

How is capitalism best conceptualized? As an economic system, a form of ethical life, or an institutionalised social order?

Eighteen months after the Arab Spring Paul Mason explores the roots of the great dissatisfaction among the young and looks at the changing dynamic of the economic crisis that underpins the social unrest.

Annual lecture.

Annual lecture.

Annual lecture.

Annual lecture.