Peter E. Gordon

Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

Julian Bourg

Associate Professor of History, Boston College; Local Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Charles Clavey

Preceptor in Social Studies, Harvard University; Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University

Gili Kliger

Postdoctoral College Fellow, Harvard University; Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University

Founded in 2001, the Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History sponsors visiting lectures, workshops, and conferences on diverse themes of interest to scholars in history, philosophy, political theory, literature, and the human sciences.

Series Events Calendar

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Book Panel Discussion with Rahel Jaeggi: "Progress and Regression"

October 30, 2025
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Rahel Jaeggi – Profossor of Philosophy, Humboldt University
Charles Clavey – Preceptor in Social Studies, Harvard University; Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
Shterna S. Friedman – Assistant Professor of Government, Harvard University
Moira Weigel – Assistant Professor of Comparative Literarure, Harvard University
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

The Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — How Nietzsche Came in from the Cold: A Case of Political Philology

November 25, 2024
4:00pm - 6:00pm

Philipp Felsch – Professor for Cultural History, Humboldt University Berlin; Bob and Charlotte Craig Visiting Professor, Department of German, Rutgers University
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

The Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Adorno and Critical Theory

October 17, 2024
1:00pm - 6:00pm

Alexandra Colligs – Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Kassel; Visiting Scholar (Fall 2024), Department of Philosophy, Columbia University
Niklas Lämmel – Ph.D. Candidate, University of Kassel
Isolda Mac Liam – Ph.D. Candidate, University of Sussex; Visiting Researcher, University of Toronto
Sebastian Tränkle – Postdoctoral Researcher, Freie Universität Berlin; Visiting Scholar (Fall 2024), Department of Philosophy, Columbia University
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — The Three Faces of Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Ties among Gender, Race, and Class

October 16, 2024
5:00pm - 6:15pm

Nancy Fraser – Henry A and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science, The New School for Social Research
Moderated by Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

The Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Refugees (Not) Welcome: European Exile Scholars at Harvard in the 1930s and 1940s

March 21, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm

Iryna Mykhailova – EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow, Early Modern World, Harvard University; Research Grant Holder, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Laurel Leff – Professor of Journalism, Northeastern University
Sebastian Musch – Alfred Landecker Lecturer, Department of History and the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), Osnabrück University; Starr Fellow Spring 2024, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon – A Conversation with Adam Shatz

January 24, 2024
3:00pm - 4:15pm

Adam Shatz – U.S. Editor, The London Review of Books; Visiting Professor, Bard College
Joelle Abi-Rached – Lecturer in History of Science, Harvard University; Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow, Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Jesse McCarthy – Assistant Professor of English and African and African American Studies, Harvard University; Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023 | Day 2

Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023
Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023 | Day 2

October 7, 2023
8:30am - 6:30pm

Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University and Maxim Pensky – Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University; Co-Director, Institute of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University

Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023 | Day 1

Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023
The Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023 | Day 1

October 6, 2023
8:30am - 6:00pm

Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University and Maxim Pensky – Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University; Co-Director, Institute of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University

Harvard Colloquium on Intellectual History — Vulgar Marxism

April 11, 2023
4:00pm - 5:15pm

Edward Baring – Associate Professor of History and Human Values, Princeton University
Chair Charles Clavey – Preceptor in Social Studies, Harvard University; Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Translating Marx's Capital in the 21st Century: Notes on the New English Edition

February 9, 2023
4:00pm - 5:30pm

Paul Reitter – Professor of History, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Faculty Affiliate, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Department of Government; and Department of Philosophy, Harvard University

In the Wake: Exposing White German Abolitionist Performativity and the Limits of Empathy

Harvard Colloquium on Intellectual History & Committee on Degrees in Social Studies — In the Wake: Exposing White German Abolitionist Performativity and the Limits of Empathy

November 10, 2022
4:30pm - 5:45pm

Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni – Assistant Professor of German Studies, University of Arizona
Chair Andrew Brandel – Lecturer on Social Studies, Harvard University; Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

CANCELLED - Transatlantic Transfers of Political and Administrative Ideas in the 20th Century

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History & Europe in the World Seminar — CANCELLED - Transatlantic Transfers of Political and Administrative Ideas in the 20th Century

April 14, 2020
4:30pm - 6:00pm

Sławomir Łukasiewicz – University Professor of Political Science, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Céline Mavrot – Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Leader, University of Bern
Fritz Sager – Full Professor, University of Bern; Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, CES, Harvard University
Taru Haapala – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Autonomous University of Madrid; Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, CES, Harvard University
Chair David Armitage – Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History, Harvard University; Faculty Associate & Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium on Intellectual History — CANCELLED - Psychoanalytic Reflections on a Fulfilled Life

April 7, 2020
5:00pm - 7:00pm

Joel Whitebook – Assistant Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry), Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research; Director, Columbia University Psychoanalytic Studies Program (2012-2017)
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History & CES Resident Faculty and Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — CANCELLED - Translating "Capital"?

April 1, 2020
5:00pm - 6:30pm

Paul Reitter – Professor of History, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University
Chair and Discussant Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History & CES Resident Faculty and Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

Confessions of the Flesh: Michel Foucault’s Final Volume of "The History of Sexuality"

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History & European Politics Seminar — Confessions of the Flesh: Michel Foucault’s Final Volume of "The History of Sexuality"

December 5, 2019
9:00am - 6:00pm

James Bernauer, S.J. – Kraft Family Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
Julian Bourg – Associate Professor of History, Boston College; CES Local Affiliate & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University
Rey Chow – Anne Firor Scott Professor of Literature, Duke University
Agustin Colombo – Postdoctoral Researcher, Boston College & University of Paris, VIII
Bernard Harcourt – Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
Lynne Huffer – Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emory University
Mark D. Jordan – Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Christian Thought & Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School; Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University
Austin Sarfan – Graduate Student, Program in Literature, Duke University
Annabel Kim – Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Edward McGushin – Professor of Philosophy, Stonehill College
Durba Mitra – Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Carol K. Pforzheimer Assistant Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — American Liberalism in France: The French Reception of Rawls, 1971-2010

October 30, 2019
4:30pm - 6:00pm

Mathieu Hauchecorne – Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Paris 8
Chair David Armitage – Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History & CES Faculty Associate & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Phenomenology and Religion - One-Day Workshop

October 11, 2019
9:00am - 6:45pm

Edward Baring – Associate Professor of History and Human Values, Princeton University
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza – Charles Chauncey Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Amy Hollywood – Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Sean Kelly – Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University
Noreen Khawaja – Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University
Elisa Magri – Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
Dermot Moran – Joseph Chair in Catholic Philosophy, Professor, Boston College
François-David Sebbah – Professor of Philosophy, Paris Nanterre University
Sarah Shortall – Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Notre Dame
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History & CES Resident Faculty and Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

CES 50th Anniversary Series — Justification and Alienation: Kant, Marx and Contemporary Critical Theory

September 27, 2019
4:30pm - 6:00pm

Rainer Forst – Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt
Chair Peter E. Gordon – Amabel B. James Professor of History; CES Resident Faculty & Seminar Co-chair, Harvard University

A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Adorno and the Dialectic of Aesthetic Sublimation

May 1, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Martin E. Jay – Ehrman Professor of History, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Adorno, Aesthetic Negativity, and the Problem of Idealism

April 23, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Robert Pippin – Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor of Social Thought, Philosophy, The University of Chicago

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — On the “Spiritual” in Aesthetic and Metaphysical Experience

April 16, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Hent de Vries – Paulette Goddard Professor of the Humanities, New York University

Mind and World in Kant and Adorno: From Wild Beauties to Spiral Jetty

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Mind and World in Kant and Adorno: From Wild Beauties to Spiral Jetty

April 11, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Jay Bernstein – Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research

Primacy of the Object: Adorno's Aesthetic Theory and the Return of Form

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Primacy of the Object: Adorno's Aesthetic Theory and the Return of Form

April 3, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Eva Geulen – Professor for European Culture and the History of Knowledge, Humboldt University of Berlin

CANCELLED: Jigsaw Puzzles of Musical Classicism: Situating Bach in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — CANCELLED: Jigsaw Puzzles of Musical Classicism: Situating Bach in Adorno's Aesthetic Theory

March 27, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Lydia Goehr – Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University

Remembrance and Anticipation: Adorno's Reading of Proust and Beckett

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Remembrance and Anticipation: Adorno's Reading of Proust and Beckett

March 13, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Espen Hammer – Professor of Philosophy, Temple University

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Adorno as Tourist

March 5, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Sherry Lee – Associate Professor of Musicology and Associate, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Natural History and Aesthetic Experience

February 27, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Maxim Pensky – Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University; Co-Director, Institute of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History — Peculiarities of the English Enlightenment

February 25, 2019
5:15pm - 7:00pm

Colin Kidd – Wardlaw Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews; Visiting Scholar 2018-2019, CES, Harvard University

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Art Has No Power Over Schein Through Its Abolition

February 20, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Michael Rosen – Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, Harvard University

Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory - A Spring 2019 Lecture Series at Harvard University — Adorno and the Default Theory of Aesthetic Value

February 13, 2019
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Samantha Matherne – Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Event Series

Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History

Chairs

Series Events Calendar