Marxism in Culture

The Marxism in Culture seminar series was conceived in 2002 to provide a forum for those committed to the continuing relevance of Marxism for cultural analysis

Both "Marxism" and "culture" are conceived here in a broad sense. We understand Marxism as an ongoing self-critical tradition, and correspondingly the critique of Marxism's own history and premises is part of the agenda. "Culture" is intended to comprehend not only the traditional fine arts, but also aspects of popular culture such as film, popular music, and fashion. From this perspective, conventional distinctions between the avant-garde and the popular, the elite and the mass, the critical and the commercial are very much open for scrutiny. All historical inquiry is theoretically grounded, self-consciously or not, and theoretical work in the Marxist tradition demands empirical verification.

Marxism in Culture welcomes contributions that are concerned primarily with principles and methods as well as those that focus on the interpretation of particular cultural practices, historical or contemporary.

Upcoming seminars

Take this Hammer: Work, Song, Crisis

We welcome you to this Marxism in Culture book launch for author Paul Rekret.
4 October 2024, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm

The Blonde Bombsite: Towards a Cultural History of Working-Class Femininity in Britain

We welcome you to this Marxism in Culture event with Jennifer Jasmine White.
22 November 2024, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm

Breton’s Surrealist Art Strike and Jouffroy’s Postsurrealist Abolition of Art

“Art Is the Armchair in Which the State Sits for Its Own Pleasure”, with Abigail Susik.
6 December 2024, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm

The Marxism in Culture seminar was set up in 2002 in the aftermath of the large international conference on Marxism and the Visual Arts Now held at UCL in April of that year. Speakers have included: Caroline Arscott, David Cunningham, Angela Dimitrakaki, Carol Duncan, Suman Gupta, Stathis Kouvelakis, David Margolies, Stewart Martin, Fred Orton, Alex Potts, Marcus Rediker, Adrian Rifkin, Fred Schwartz, Greg Sholette, Blake Stimson, James Van Dyke, Marina Vishmidt, Ben Watson, O.K. Werckmeister, the Warwick Research Collective (WREC) and many more. Marxism in Culture actively supports the research of postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Past seminars

31 May 2024: Figures of Capital: Music-video as Immanent Critique
17 May 2024: Against Development: Med Hondo's Migrant Cinema as a Practice of Antisystemic Worldmaking
26 April 2024: Cecilia Vicuña, Saborami
15 March 2024: Book launch: Art and Emancipation
16 February 2024: Antisocial Feelings: Capitalism and Ressentiment from Adam Smith to the Present
2 February 2024: On Cowboys and Indians: Double Alienation & the Construction of Whiteness in the American Southwest
17th November 2023: Marxism in Culture: The Economy of Mass Graves
27 October 2023: Marxism in Culture: Forms of Living, Forms of Leaving: Lu Märten and Carla Lonzi in Dialogue
6 March 2020: Marxism in Culture: Roundtable launch of Keywords for Marxist Art History
14 February 2020: Marxism in Culture: Speculation as a Mode of Production
28 February 2020: Marxism in Culture: Working Aesthetics: Labour, Art and Capitalism
6 December 2019: Marxism in Culture: The People’s Detox
25 October 2019: Marxism in Culture: Upon Fractured Lines
22 November 2019: Marxism in Culture: East Detroit and Construction Labor, 1910
11 October 2019: Marxism in Culture: The Social Use of Reason - A Concept of Enlightenment in Early Proletkult
27 September 2019: Marxism in Culture: Towards a Marxist Literary Theory in Times of Capitalist Realism
21 June 2019: Marxism in Culture: Two book launches on Landscape and Utopia
7 June 2019: Marxism in Culture: On the Aesthetics of a Fractured Vitalism
24 May 2019: Marxism in Culture: The Power of Gods and the Forces of Nature - On Music and Popular Modernisms
10 May 2019: Marxism in Culture: The Logistic of Sense

Seminar convenors

Dr Larne Abse Gogarty, UCL Slade School of Fine Art
Dave Beech Chelsea College of Art, UAL
Warren Carter, Open University
Luisa Corna, UWE Bristol
Gail Day, Leeds University
Steve Edwards Birkbeck University
Alex Fletcher Central St Martins, UAL
Antigoni Memou, University of East London
Andrew.Murray, Open University
Dr Jenny Nachtigall, UCL History of Art
Paul Rekret, University of Westminster
Dr Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann, Art History, Open University