Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Praktische Philosophie und Sozialphilosophie & Centre for Social Critique

Call for Applications

International Critical Theory Summer School 2026

JULY 6 – 10, 2026

Centre for Social Critique Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Forces of History

That “human beings make their own history” is a truism. Unfortunately, as we know from the famous opening page of Marx’s 18^th Brumaire, a “but” has to qualify the simple proposition. Human beings do not make history under self-selected circumstances. Although human beings made some of these circumstances in the past (traditions, institutions, technologies), others are not a direct outcome of their agency – natural processes, geographies, planetary boundaries. Some directly materialize as structures in the world; others are conceptually mediated. They all condition human agency and thus the way history is made.

While the idea that human beings make history in the singular has been criticized for a long time for the Eurocentric, racist and colonial tendencies characterizing many of its presumably universal articulations, it has more recently come under pressure in different ways. From an environmental or even planetary perspective, trust in the power and independence of human agency seems misplaced. To conceptualize history today from a materialist perspective requires to acknowledge planetary limits and imminent ecological disasters in ways that seem to require a reformulation of Marx’s proposition.

In the Summer School, we therefore aim to explore anew the scope and nature of historical agency in the face of the forces of history that exceed that agency. We will focus on ecological and other forces of history and ask: What are their consequences for our understanding of history and emancipation? Does the acknowledgment of non-human forces in history entail the splintering of history into a plurality of histories? And how does the planetary reframing of history affect the relation of subaltern histories to the idea of universal history?

The summer school will involve plenary and reading group discussions as well as a public panel debate. We will learn how critical theories in the past conceptualized the role of external forces of history and delve into current debates with Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lillian Cicerchia, Maeve Cooke, Alyssa Battistoni and Massimiliano Tomba.

To apply for participation, graduate students and junior scholars are invited to submit a précis of their take on core issues in the debate on forces of history and a CV (max. 1 page per document). The précis should show which particular background knowledge and systematic positions the applicants would contribute to our joint discussions. Please submit your application in a single PDF document and make sure that the title of your précis summarizes its content.

Deadline for applications: January 7^th, 2026

M.A. students at the Berlin Universities may apply until April 20^th, 2026.

Please apply by using the form provided on our website: https://criticaltheoryinberlin.de/Formulare/summer-school-2026-outside-berlin/

Participation in the Summer School is free of charge. A limited amount of travel funding is available for international students from the Global South who do not have access to institutional reimbursement. Participants are responsible for independently organizing their travel and accommodation.

Please check our website for updates and further information https://criticaltheoryinberlin.de/summer_school/international-summer-school-in-critical-theory-2026-forces-of-history/

Instructors:

Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago)

Lillian Cicerchia (University of Amsterdam)

Maeve Cooke (University College Dublin)

Massimiliano Tomba (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Alyssa Battistoni (Barnard College)

and

Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Robin Celikates (Freie Universität Berlin)

Christian Schmidt (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Organized by Rahel Jaeggi, Robin Celikates, Christian Schmidt, Zveta Pauly (Centre for Social Critique Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Alice Crary (The New School for Social Research)