After the success of our first year, the Centre for Law & Social Change is excited to launch the second edition at SOAS on May 8 – 10, 2025. This three-day focused workshop aimed at Marxist scholar-activists will challenge you to reflect on and develop your Marxist legal research within and beyond the year’s themes. In 2025, the themes are Finance (with Dr Kanad Bagchi), EcoMarxism and Climate (with Dr Hamza Hamouchene), Borders (with Dr Danai Avgeri) and Methods for Struggle (facilitated by local organisers). The objective is for everyone to participate in all sessions so as to cross-pollinate and learn from each other’s ideas, strategies and tactics in each of these key areas of struggle for left movements in the contemporary world. 

To explore and discuss these themes in detail, we plan three Marxist master classes on each of the workshop days. Each Marxist master class will start with an exposition on the topic, followed by a discussion with the participants. In our final session (on Saturday 10 May), Methods for Struggle, we will focus on how to collaborate and strategise within the movement and as part of anti-capitalist grassroots organisations. We also offer a writing workshop, in which you are invited to discuss your research in pairs and give each other feedback on a work-in-progress.  We encourage the participation of PhD students and early career scholars who are active in social movement organising. If you fall outside these categories and would like to join, drop us a line also!

Application:

To apply, please send us an outline of your project (up to one page), stating your research topic, questions, the methods you are using, and what you hope to get out of this event. You may also include details of your organising activities. Please submit your application by 24 February 2025 to sr94@soas.ac.uk. Successful applicants will be notified within ten days and must send their working paper (draft PhD chapter, article, etc.) to discuss to receive feedback in the writing workshop (between 5,000 – 8,000 words) by 07 April 2025. We do not expect a new paper – our idea is that the workshop will provide helpful feedback from people working on similar issues/topics.

Please share this call with your networks and/or PhD students. We had a wonderful time last year and cannot wait for next May.

Please let us know if you have any questions,

River and Suzana, on behalf of the Centre for Law & Social Change – follow us on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/lawsocialchange.bsky.social