Edinburgh - St. Andrews Graduate Conference in Political Theory

Joint Graduate Conference in Political Theory, 5-6 June 2023

Conference Theme: Justice, Oppression, Resistance

We are pleased to announce the first joint Graduate Conference in Political Theory organised by the University of Edinburgh and St. Andrews University.   The conference is supported by CRITIQUE – Centre for Ethics and Critical Thought at Edinburgh – and by the St. Andrews International Political Theory Research Group. The two-day conference will be held in a hybrid format: we will convene in-person at the University of Edinburgh, though attendance and participation may be in-person or online.   The conference will open with a panel on ‘Empire, Race, Nature’, featuring Shuk Ying Chan (University of Oxford) and representatives of the Political Theory PGR community at the University of Edinburgh and St. Andrews.  Four themed panels will follow (see list of possible themes below), with keynote lectures delivered by Dr Ẹniọlá Ṣóyẹmí (Oxford) and Dr Raul Rao (St. Andrews).

Conference Brief:

Various scholars have pointed to numerous blind-spots in classic liberal theories of justice and as a result the world of normative theory has undergone significant changes. The scope of critique is far-reaching, coming from proponents of various traditions within political theory and beyond. Most notably, with the increasing understanding of the role of structural injustices stemming from, for example, centuries of economic, gender, and racial inequities, the idea of justice as resistance against oppression is becoming a central concern of critical normative theory. This conference seeks to explore the ways in which normative theories of justice are problematised in contemporary scholarship, and how this may enable the realisation of a more just world.