Recasting the Political: Perspectives from Deep History – Cambridge, 3-4 July 2023

This conference brings together historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political theorists, and global studies and international relations scholars to showcase and discuss the merits and challenges of adopting a deep historical perspective on the political, and what contribution a deeper historicisation of power, domination, inequality, order, hierarchy, community, security, or rule can make to our empirical and conceptual understanding of the political sphere of human existence, beyond—or against—the established canon of political theory/philosophy. As deep history transcends the boundaries, methods, and scales of traditional ‘history’ and invites us to examine the transformation of political forms in relation to wider life-processes evolving in deep time, the discussion will also assess how deep history might help us illuminate—and potentially transform—the politics of the Anthropocenic present and future.

Attendance: In person.

Registration: Places are limited. Please book here.

Venue: Bradfield Room, Darwin College (Silver Street, CB3 9EU, Cambridge).

Barry Buzan (London School of Economics)

Yale Ferguson (Rutgers University)

Barry K. Gills (University of Helsinki)

Håkon Glørstad (Museum of Cultural History, Oslo)

Inanna Hamati-Ataya (University of Cambridge)

Jaakko Heiskanen (Queen Mary University of London)

Martin Jones (University of Cambridge)

Maarten Meijer (University of Groningen)

Jan Nederveen Pieterse (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Iver B. Neumann (Fridtjof Nansen Institute)

Nicholas G. Onuf (Florida International University)

Amanda Rees (University of York)

Susan Sherratt (University of Sheffield)

Daniel Lord Smail (Harvard University)

Fred Spier (University of Amsterdam)

Ayşe Zarakol (University of Cambridge)