By Mckenna Dallmeyer
(Campus Reform) –
Universities across the country sponsor working groups at the graduate
level.
These groups are most often
invite-only and restricted to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and
faculty. They center around a common interdisciplinary research interest or
inquiry such as artificial intelligence, modern literature, or economic systems.
Conferences, seminars, and public
events are often hosted by working groups during which academics gather to
discuss the topic of interest and review articles or papers solicited from the
academic community.
Commonly, working groups host
reading groups where members complete assigned readings surrounding the working
group’s topic of interest.
In American colleges today, Marxism
is a popular area of inquiry for working and reading groups.
The University of Florida
sponsors The Working Group for the Study of
Critical Theory, which focuses on “alternatives to the reigning
paradigm of the disciplines” and “imagining and creating more just and
fulfilling ways of living in the world.”
Campus Reform reached out to the
university about the group.
Hessy Fernandez, director of
strategic communications and marketing, said that the university “fosters an
environment where divergent ideas, opinions and philosophies new and old can be
rigorously discussed and critically evaluated in the academic environment.”
“The working group’s meetings are
housed in the Department of English and are available, but not required to
graduate students and faculty who are interested in evaluating these topics,”
Fernandez continued.
The Working Group for the Study of
Critical Theory advertises that it “supports” the Marxist
Reading Group at UF.
The Marxist Reading Group was established to “encourage the study of
Marxist theories at the University of Florida.” Recent readings include
“Diversity, Difference and Caribbean Feminism: The Challenge of Anti-Racism,”
“The Myth of Marxist Homophobia,” and “Theories about Sex and Sexuality in
Utopian Socialism.”
Since 1999, the group has hosted an
annual conference three of which were titled “Enthusiasm for Revolution,”
“Toward a Democracy with Rights,” and “Marxism and (Bio)politics.”
In 2019, the Marxist Reading Group
hosted its 21st Annual Conference centered
around the topic of “Political Paralysis,” which “investigate[d] how current
Marxist cultural criticism continues to enable utopian horizons in the face of
a seemingly static present.”
“What role does Marxist cultural
criticism play in dark times,” the event’s flier asked of scholars.
In 2020, the Marxist Reading Group
hosted its 22nd Annual Conference centered
around the topic of “Marxist Sexualities.” The group issued a call for papers
considering “ecofeminism,” “queer/feminist/Marxist pedagogies,” “sex work and
issues facing sex workers,” among others.
“In what practical ways might an
attenuated focus on sexual politics open Marxist praxis up to activists beyond
the academy,” the website poses.
In 2021, the group’s 23rd Annual Conference discussed
“Marxism and Neoliberalism Today” and sought to “investigate the ways in which
Marxist praxis can be practiced and reinforced within the situated politics and
policies of today, as well as the potential for the creation of new Marxist spaces
and collectives in the era of neoliberalism.”
But Marxist working groups also
operate in digital spaces.
H-net is an
independent, non-profit scholarly association that hosts a jobs board for
university jobs in the humanities. The website also offers an open academic
space to academics who wish to collaborate and engage with one another.
An H-Net network centered around
Marxism and Communism is H-HOAC, which stands for "H-Net
network for Historians of American Communism."
H-HOAC is built on the work of
"The Historians of American Communism"
which comprises professors from New York University, Texas A&M University
at Galveston, American University, and the University of Southern Indiana,
among others.
Members explore the “history of
American communism, American anti-communism, Soviet espionage in America,
American ties to the Communist International and Red International of Trade
Unions, social justice and cultural movements sponsored or endorsed by the
Communist Party and other related topics.”
This year, H-HOAC members Stephen F.
Austin State University professor Dana Cooper and University
of Mary-Hardin Baylor professor Claire Phelan issued a call for papers that
address the “intersection” of “motherhood and communism.”
Marxist working groups are active
all over the country.
At the University of Pennsylvania, a
working group called “Variations” concentrates
on “Marxism, critical theory, and literary theory.” In Fall 2018, the group
hosted a reading group studying Karl Marx’s
“masterwork” Das Kapital.
The Interdisciplinary Marxist
Working Group at the University of California, Berkeley,
focuses on the “ongoing relevance of Marxism to the current historical
moment, as an explicitly global project.”
Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor for executive communications,
told Campus Reform that the university’s administration
believes in the “importance of diversity of perspective."
"Therefore," Mogulof
continued, they "do everything in [their] power to uphold our Principles
of Community which, among other things, commits us to, ‘ensuring freedom of
expression and dialogue that elicits the full spectrum of views held by our varied
communities.’”
“Academic programs like a discussion
group have latitude and independence to pursue their academic interests as they
see fit. At the same time, as is the case with all academic programs, they do
not speak for or represent the values, perspectives or positions of the
University,” Mogulof continued.
At New York University, the Marxism Working Group is
“grounded in the political-economic critique of capitalism” and concentrates on
“Marxist accounts of race and gender.”
Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences
sponsors a group called Marxism and Materialism, which
examines “contemporary uses across historical, humanistic, and social
scientific disciplines that engage the dilemmas of political economy, power,
and domination.”
Yale University’s Marxism and Cultural Theory explores
themes that include “postcolonial theory,” “socialist feminism,” “black Marxist
thought,” and “Marxist theories of the state.”
Campus Reform reached out to all of the groups, universities, and
individuals mentioned in this article for comment. The article will be updated
accordingly.
