International Summer School in Critical Theory 2025. Racial Capitalism
June 30 - July 4, 2025
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Topic
Instructors
FAQ
Outside Berlin Universities Application & PhD students
Berlin Universities Application (MA & BA)
Call for applications
Topic
The term “racial capitalism” is increasingly used to insist that, as a matter of historical fact, industrial capitalism was built on the basis of colonialism and slavery, and that, as a matter of sociological fact, capitalist accumulation continues to operate through racial differentiation and hierarchization. In recent years, “racial capitalism” has attracted not only sustained theoretical attention, but it has also become an important reference point for radical social movements such as the Movement for Black Lives. It is not difficult to see why: race (just like gender) structures who can access jobs, wages, housing, credit, mobility across borders and other social goods; and being subjected to austerity, police violence, imprisonment, environmental hazards and health risks is in fundamental ways inflected by racism. Even if one recognizes the reality and indeed centrality of these phenomena to an adequate understanding of capitalism, however, it remains disputed whether, and if so how, the notion of racial capitalism can be systematically spelled out in ways that go beyond its often vague and undertheorized invocation.
In this summer school we will explore some of the central philosophical and socio-theoretical issues the turn to “racial capitalism” raises: Is the link between capitalism and racism historically contingent or necessary? If capitalism is necessarily racist, what makes it so? If race and gender are not accidental to, but constitutive of capitalism, how can the relation between class, race and gender be conceptualized in ways that also track their realignment in the current constellation? If, in the framework of racial capitalism, race is not primarily an identity but a structure of power, how does this impact our analysis both of capitalism and the movements that struggle against oppression and exploitation? And if the universal proletariat can no longer serve as the subject of revolutionary emancipation, what is the horizon for anti-capitalist struggles and transversal forms of solidarity today that can prevent emancipatory politics from splintering into a diversity of struggles that often remain at cross-purposes?
The summer school will involve plenary lectures and discussions, reading sessions, small group discussions and a public panel debate. We will explore how the link between capitalism and racial domination has been addressed in the Marxist tradition (in Marx’s own writings and those of Rosa Luxemburg) before turning to later approaches that in part depart from and in part reconstitute this tradition, such as W. E. B. Du Bois’s and Cedric Robinson’s historically informed analysis of how racial stratification came to be constitutive for the development and stability of capitalist societies and Stuart Hall’s analysis of how racial capitalism generates its own internal contradictions and various forms of resistance to it. Tommie Shelby, Inés Valdez, Robert Gooding-Williams and Manuela Bojadžijev join us as instructors and present their own work on racial capitalism.
Instructors Tommie Shelby (Harvard University)
Inés Valdez (Johns Hopkins University)
Robert Gooding-Williams (Yale University)
Manuela Bojadžijev (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
and
Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Robin Celikates (Freie Universität Berlin) Christian Schmidt (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Christian Schmidt (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
FAQ How do I submit my application?
Please send your application via the form below and upload your C.V. and précis. The general deadline for applications is the 31st of January 2025. Only graduate students at the Berlin Universities may apply until the 16th of April 2025.
Why is there an extra deadline for students at the Berlin Universities?
Students at the Berlin-Brandenburg Universities can receive credit for participating. The later deadline for these students allows them to apply when their general course-choices for the summer is due. Therefore, those applicants who study at a University in Berlin or Brandenburg may submit their application until the 16th of April 2025.
The Call for Participation is targeted at PhD students and junior scholars. Can I apply as an M.A. student or as a Post-doc?
Yes, as an M.A. student or as a more senior scholar you may apply as well.
May I submit my application in German?
No, please submit your précis and your C.V. in English.
May I submit a chapter of my book or my dissertation?
No. Please send us only a précis of max. 1 page, describing your take on core concerns on the summer school topic: Racial Capitalism. The précis should show which particular background knowledge and systematic positions you would contribute to our joint discussions. Please make sure the title of your précis summarizes its content.
When will I be informed if my application was successful?
We process the applications as quickly as possible and will get back to you by the end of February. Students at the Berlin Universities, who may submit their applications until the 16th of April, will hear from us by the end of April.
How do you select the participants? What are the criteria?
Besides looking for the most interesting and fitting approaches to the Summer School’s central questions, we try to achieve a certain geographical and topical balance, and we give precedence to applications from PhD students and early post-docs over more junior and senior ones. Amongst applications ranked equally, we prefer those scholars who did not attend the Critical Theory Summer School the year before, since it seems fair to give the chance to participate to as many individuals as possible.
Please note that even though we try to make the selection process as transparent as possible, it may happen that although the mentioned criteria apply to you, you are not admitted to the Summer School. This is due to the fact that we receive a lot more applications than we can accept.
Are there any participation fees for the Summer School?
No.
Is there a possibility to get funding for my participation in the Summer School?
Please note that there is no funding available for this year’s summer school. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any travel funds for international students, but recommend to get in touch with your home institutions about possible financial support for attending the summer school.
Is it possible to get an official certificate of participation? I need one in order to get funding from my university.
Yes, of course. Please send us an e-mail at ctsummerschool@hu-berlin.de.
Do I need a visa to enter Germany? How do I get a visa?
You can find out at the foreign office (https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/visa-service/visabestimmungen-node) if you need a visa and what the requirements are. Please find out as soon as possible and let us know right away if you need an official invitation or confirmation of participation in order to get your visa.
Do you offer accommodation for participants? Can you help me find accommodation in Berlin?
Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to help with that. For free rooms, you may check and contact the Humboldt guesthouse. Generally, please consult the usual online search engines for accommodation.
When will the reading for the Summer School be available?
The literature will be available by the end of May.
Does the program extend to the evenings?
The program is limited to mornings and afternoons, finishing no later than 7 p.m.. However, there will be a public round table on the evening of Wednesday, July 2.
When will the Summer School start and end?
The first get-together meeting will be on the evening of Sunday, the June 29, and we will finish with a closing party on Friday, July 4. Thus, it will be best to plan arriving on Sunday noon (latest) and to leave not earlier than the following Saturday noon.
Can I participate in only a few sessions, or for half of the week?
In order to enable fruitful discussions, we kindly request participants to attend all sessions.
Are any of the sessions public?
Yes, the evening panel (July 2) is public.
Will there be recordings of the sessions?
No.
Where can I find information on past Summer Schools?
You can find CfPs, programmes, and summaries of the final discussions of each Summer School in our archive (http://criticaltheoryinberlin.de/archive-summer_school/)
If you have any further question:
Do not hesitate to contact us (ctsummerschool@hu-berlin.de). We will reply as soon as possible. Please note that submitting applications is only possible via the form provided below.
Outside Berlin Universities Application & PhD students
Berlin Universities Application (MA & BA) 