The Marxist Literary Group’s Institute on Culture and Society 2027
June 8-12, 2027
Marx Restated
The MLG Summer Institute on Culture and Society will take place at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Please submit your proposal by January 31st, 2027
Conference Theme:
In an outline he proposed for the writing of Capital, Karl Marx originally expressed the intention of writing an entire volume on the state’s relationship to the capitalist mode of production. Today, we might have strong reason to wish that volume had actually been written. In a resurgently nationalist age of border walls, detention centers, protectionist tariffs, imperial rivalries, settler violence, genocides, ascendent fascisms, and escalating war, the centrality of the state to capitalism seems inescapably confirmed, and the state of the world market and its global supply chains increasingly precarious as a result. At the same time, we are hearing of a “return to socialism” that promises to “reclaim” the state for the working class. The election victories of leftwing candidates have in turn been met with a renewal of McCarthyist attacks on socialists and communists by the political right, prompting talk of a “new red scare.”
If the state is not directly part of the machinery of the capital accumulation process, something that Marx thought he could postpone writing about until a later time, what then is the nature of its importance to capitalism? And what too is its significance for struggles against exploitation and domination by capitalism? To what extent are the arguments about the state found in his early work (“The German Ideology” or “On the Jewish Question”) or in his political analyses of specific historical events (“The Eighteenth Brumaire,” “The Civil War in France,” and his journalistic writings about the U.S. Civil War) compatible with the critique of political economy that he elaborated in his major later writings? What implications might answers to these questions have for the praxis of social movements and political parties, as directed against the bourgeois state? What are the prospects for state socialism in the twenty-first century? And what might be gained from a return to earlier debates in Marxist theory on the question of the state, such as the German state derivation debates of the 1970s, or the political writings of Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and Nicos Poulantzas on state power and state formations? Do concepts of “governmentality” offer useful alternative or complementary accounts of the political life of capitalism?
The 2027 meeting of the Institute on Culture to be held in Tucson, Arizona, just seventy-five miles away from the US-Mexico border, will use this occasion to explore what a Marxist approach to the state and the domain of the political might illuminate for us today, whether in regards to the current conjuncture or in its contrast to earlier moments in the history of capitalism.
We invite papers, panels, presentations or roundtables on a range of topics, including but not limited to:
Literature, capitalism, politics, and the state across history
Marxist state theory and the state derivation debates
Racialization and the politics of capitalist states and societies
National culture, capitalism, and imperial rivalry
Political collectivities for and against the state
Sub-national collectivities (localities, regions, provinces), labor and state-formations
Capitalism, peoplehoods and the inter-state system
Political theories of capitalism: hegemonies, state apparatuses, world-systems, governmentality
Landed property, territory, and the nation-state
Race, nation and class in the age of the populist-late fascist state
Labor, citizenship and culture
Gender, sexuality and the capitalist or neo-fascist state
Indigenous peoplehood and state-formations
Technologies of the state: border walls, policing, incarceration, the law
Geometries of capitalist state geography (borders, metropoles, peripheries, borderlands)
Social movement and activist organization in relation to the capitalist state
Third-Worldism and national liberation movements (historical, contemporary)
State socialisms past and present
Electoralism, entryism, realignment, and organizing
We also invite reading groups related to the themes of this conference. Texts already selected for sustained discussion include Marx’s “On the Jewish Question,” “The Eighteenth Brumaire,” and “The Civil War in France,” so proposals to lead reading groups on these texts are especially encouraged. Our hope is that participants will take the opportunity to read together throughout the year, convening at the conference to pool our resources in service of a strong, collective understanding of Marx’s political writings. Individual reading groups should focus on a text or excerpt of no more than fifty pages. Reading group conveners should prepare to lead a seminar-style discussion, not deliver lengthy presentations. Some suggestions for best pedagogical practice will be sent out ahead of the conference. If you are interested in being connected with a reading group (or you have an existing group willing to take on some new members!) please fill out our interest form, and conference organizers will reach out as soon as possible.
Finally, due to growth in the size of this conference, we encourage senior scholars who can attend without presenting formal papers to do so in order to make space for graduate students and early career presenters. We can accommodate no more than one contribution per participant.
Contact email for all submission queries is: mlgics2027@gmail.com
Submission Guidelines
Proposals for individual papers, panels, roundtables, or reading groups should be submitted using THIS SUBMISSION FORM by January 31st, 2027. Guidelines for conference participation are as follows:
Proposals for panels, reading groups, and roundtables should provide a 300-word abstract; proposals for panels should also include a 100-word description of each paper. Proposals for individual papers should be 200 words long. Entries on the submission form are provided for all of these items.
Our expectation at MLG-ICS is that attendees attend as many days and sessions as possible. We hold no concurrent sessions, and the group conversation builds collectively over the course of the week. Every comrade who presents deserves a full audience.
All MLG-ICS conferences are themed, but we will consider proposals on all aspects of Marx and Marxism.
Panel submissions should be for 4-5 people; roundtable submissions should be for 5-8; reading groups should be for 2-8. Please commit to having all listed panel members attend the conference.
MLG will be in person only. Please note that we will not be able to accommodate requests for remote participation.
Our expectation at MLG-ICS is that attendees attend the entire conference. Reduced rate accomodations is available to make this possible. We hold no concurrent sessions and the group conversations builds collectively over the course of the week. Everycomrade who presents deserves a full audience. The last day of the conference traditionally involves a “business meeting” to which everyone is invited and a celebratory BBQ.
Reduced Rate Accommodations
Dorm room accommodations for all attendees are available at a reduced rate on the University of Arizona campus to enable participants to stay for the duration of the conference. Single rooms are estimated to be $58 per person per night and more details will be shared once the program has been set.
If you have any questions about this conference, please write mlgics2027@gmail.com
Previous Institute Posters
