Benjamin Lectures

In the framework of the Benjamin Lectures – and the associated Benjamin Chair at the Centre for Social Critique – a distinguished scholar is invited each year, to present the broader public with current debates on key social and political issues. In 2026, the Benjamin Chair will be held by Dipesh Chakrabarty, a renowned historian and leading figure of postcolonial theory and subaltern studies. Entitled ‘A Second Decline of the West?‘, the Benjamin Lectures by Dipesh Chakrabarty will be held on 23, 24 and 25 June 2026 in Miriam Makeba Auditorium in Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin.

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A Second Decline of the West?

In the year 2026, the Benjamin Chair at the Centre will be held by the internationally recognized historian, Dipesh Chakrabarty. A quarter of a century after the publication of his seminal work, Provincializing Europe, the author will pose the question of whether the multiple ecological catastrophes that have befallen the planet necessitate the provincialization of […]

Political Ethics of the Oppressed: On Freedom, Solidarity, and Self-Respect

Philosopher and African American Studies scholar Tommie Shelby from Harvard University held the Benjamin Chair at the Centre for Social Critique in 2025. From June 18 to 20, 2025, Shelby developped a Political Ethics of the Oppressed in his Benjamin Lectures. The Benjamin Lectures 2025 were organised in cooperation with Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

What Is Moral Socialism?

Political theorist Lea Ypi from the London School of Economics held the Center’s Benjamin Chair in 2024. From June 19 to 21, 2024, Ypi presented her ideas on what is essential for a moral version of socialism in her Benjamin Lectures at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.

Agents of Possibilty: The Complexity of Social Change

Sally Haslanger is professor for philosophy at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Being an active feminist and anti-racist, she elucidated the complexities of social change and the decisive roles of social movements and social theory in her talks on “Agents of Possibility”.

Three Faces of Capitalist Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Ties among Gender, Race and Class

Should we view contemporary anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and feminist struggles as unrecognised labor struggles? Nancy Fraser uncovers the hidden ties among gender, race, and class by linking them to the three forms of capitalist labor: exploited labor, dispossessed labor, and domestic labor.

The Working Sovereign

In June 2021, the second Walter Benjamin Lectures of the Humanities and Social Change Center Berlin took place. Axel Honneth, one of the leading social philosophers of our time, devoted three evenings to the question of the potential and necessity of democratizing labor relations.

Democracy and its Crises

In June 2019, the Walter Benjamin Lectures took place for the first time at the Humanities and Social Change Center Berlin at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The renowned Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor kicked off this annual format. On three consecutive evenings, Taylor gave lectures on “Democracy and its Crises,” highlighting immanent decay phenomena of contemporary democracies […]