Next Events (2025):

Winter Session: ‘Queer Theory, Marxism, and the Question of Labour’
14th – 15th February 2025 . Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo
Call for Papers | Register here

It seems we need a queer materialism now more than ever. As we witness the rise of the Far Right throughout Europe and beyond, increased attacks on hard-won queer freedoms, and expanding divisions of wealth, the need for a robust theoretical model of liberation is ever more pressing. Not only is such a model necessary for abstract analysis, but also for on-the-ground resistance and praxis. Academics and critical thinkers are already developing precisely these theoretical and practical tools. The recent wave of family abolitionist writing by Sophie Lewis, M.E. O’Brien, Alva Gotby, and Sophie K. Rosa, of queer-Marxist literature on the labour of care from Hil Malatino, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and the Care Collective, and of radical reconceptualisations of the body in relation to technology by Helen Hester and the Laboria Cuboniks collective demonstrate the prescience of these issues today. We envision this study circle as contributing to this timely moment of urgent queer-Marxist critique and hope to contribute to the growing and necessary reconsideration of the possibilities of queer-materialist matters. 

Despite often sharing similar objects of study and working together for similar liberatory goals, the methodological divergences between Marxism and queer theory often produce unresolved tensions. For instance, how might the queer focus on reappraising care be in tension with Marxist-feminist critiques of socially reproductive labour within the family? Is it possible to resolve the opposition between queer accounts of the self being produced through language/discourse and the Marxist account of one’s self being determined by material conditions? How might queer conceptualisations of technology as liberatory prove fruitful for contemporary Marxist debates on automation and AI, and vice versa? Can queer theory’s apparent aversion to theorising economics be resolved by Marxism’s hyper-focus on political economy? And how does this tension become magnified when comparing Marxism’s push for the establishment of Communist states versus queer theory’s generally anti-state position? Can the increasingly pervasive culture wars and rise of the Far Right be explained by the material conditions of late capitalism or by an increasingly regressive and phobic social discourse? Or both? Or neither?

It is these contradictions from which our circle will begin to consider the limits of both queer and Marxist thought, as well as the possibilities for synthesising them in new, politically generative ways. As such, our central questions will be: To what extent can the differing methodologies of queer and Marxist thought be used in mutually informative ways? How might we approach perceived tensions between queer theory and Marxist thought as generative intersections? How might we use these contradictions as productive starting points for analysing key subject matters for both schools of thought? What might be the limits of thinking these two methodologies together? What can a queer-materialist method illuminate about contemporary systems of oppression?

In practical terms, our circle meets twice a year (one Winter Session and one Summer Session) to foster interdisciplinary discussions on the possibilities of queer-materialist critique. In winter, we hold symposia open to anyone researching or working on topics related to the overlaps and tensions between queer and Marxist theory. In summer, we meet for a longer, week-long Summer Session, at which we combine with other study circles at NSU in order to further the interdisciplinary reach of our conversations. All events organised by the circle are open to those working across theory and practice,  including (but not limited to) students, academics, artists, activists, and social workers.

Ruth Thrush

Coordinator Study Circle 8

Thomas Chesworth

Coordinator Study Circle 8