Convened by: Dace Dzenovska, COMPAS/ISCA, University of Oxford and Nicholas De Genova, Kings College London

Ever since the collapse of Second World state socialisms and the demise of Third World projects of decolonization and anti-imperialist liberation struggles, amidst the attendant neoliberal triumphalism as well as the ensuing resuscitation of securitarianism in the form of the so-called Global War on Terror, political imaginaries of a unitary and universal revolutionary subject have been deeply troubled, if not derailed altogether.  Consequently, scholars and activists alike have been on the lookout for signs of the emergence of new political subjects and new sites of radical or emancipatory politics. Particularly in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, this quest has gained still more acute momentum worldwide. Time seems ripe for new formations of social struggle and political action.

This workshop brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars in order to develop a conversation about emerging subjects and sites of politics. Workshop participants will critically engage the relationship between coloniality and Europe, consider the formation of normative and unruly subjects of politics, as well as debate political possibilities engendered by particular forms of politics. The workshop will consider these diverse engagements with contemporary political imaginaries and practices both in the political landscape and in critical scholarship about it from within the situated and contested perspective of Europe.