The Psychic Life of Statues - Lecture by Rahul Rao
14 January 2026, 17:15h
Utrecht University
Drift 25, Room 102
The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire.
Why have statues become terrains for the assertion and contestation of racial and caste supremacy? Unlike the overwhelming majority of recent works on statue politics, which examine this phenomenon within nationally bounded parameters, in this talk I offer a transnational and connective account of iconoclastic politics that pays attention to the intertextuality of movements such as Rhodes Must Fall, Gandhi Must Fall, Black Lives Matter, the global Dalit movement and the Hindu Right in India. In doing so, I consider both the toppling and erection of statues as assertions of racial and caste identity and explore the justification of these apparently contradictory phenomena under the rubric of ‘decolonisation’. Placing race and caste in conversation with one another, I will explore how struggles around these categories manifest themselves in the built environment with particular reference to statues.
Rahul Rao is Reader in International Political Thought in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London. He is the author of three books – The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire (London: Pluto Press, 2025), Out of Time: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), and Third World Protest: Between Home and the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). His work has been supported by fellowships awarded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. He is a member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective. In addition to writing regularly for academic journals and collections, his work has appeared in more public-facing venues such as The Caravan and Himal Southasian.
Registration:nog@uu.nl. Please register by using ‘Registration Doing Gender Lecture Rao’ as the subject line.
Reading and Preparation:
Chapter 5 from The Psychic Lives of Statues (PDF available per request)
Following our event in December there was evidence of an interest in a Capital Volume 1 Reading group. Are you interested in joining this? Get in touch! We will put in contact with other interested people
The Black Dialectics - Reading group
International Institute of Social History - IISH
Cruquiusweg 31,
1019 AT Amsterdam
(room to be confirmed)
January-June 2026 Time: 15h-17h Dates:
21 January 2026
11 February 2026
4 March 2026
25 March 2026
15 April 2026
6 May 2026
3 June 2026
24 June 2026
This reading group focuses on the reception of the dialectics—specifically Hegelian and Marxist dialectics—within anticolonial milieus across Africa and the Americas between the 1930s and 1970s. Readings include texts by A. Césaire, O. Cox, A. Davis, W.E.B. Dubois, F. Fanon, C.L.R. James, C. Jones, O. Huiswoud, N. Nkrumah, G. Padmore, and W. Rodney.
The Reading Group is organized with the support of the OZSW (Nederlandse Onderzoeksschool Wijsbegeerte/Dutch Research School of Philosophy) in collaboration with marxism-nl.org. Students can enroll for 3 credits. See https://www.ozsw.nl/activity/reading-seminar-black-dialectic/2026-01-21/
Amsterdam – UvA, location tbc
starting December 2025
Organised by Jeff Diamanti, Mikki Stelder, and Asen Dimitrov
Every commodity imagines a supply chain and every struggle for justice and equality implicates the logistical spaces that quietly reproduce our historical conjuncture. How do we realign our critical vocabularies, attachments, and projects to the supply chains that shape the ongoing reproduction of uneven accumulation and dispossession? And what methods can we share to sharpen the emergence of logistical solidarities to come? This seminar consists of ongoing reading groups, skill shares, workshops, guest lectures, and field trips. rMA students seeking national research school credit can enroll for either 1ECT or 6ECTs.
December 11 from 15–17h (location tbd): Reading and introductions with guest workshop on the logistical connection between Isreal and Amsterdam. First meeting of the Supply Chain Criticism seminar involves a round of introductions to the seminar and a discussion of the special issue of Environment and Planning D on logistics (36.4 August 2018) with focus on the introduction. We will also form research clusters and plan future field research as a group.
January (date tba): Mikki Stelder + reading group
February 2nd, 15–17h: Lecture by Alberto Toscano on Imperialism at Sea: Logistics, Counter-logistics, Polycrisis (location tba).
March (date tba): Field trip to the Port of Rotterdam
April (date tba): GIS skillshare with SOMA and FieldARTS
May 8th, 15–17h: Lecture by Kathryn Yusoff on Inhumane Reparations
Marxist Quantitative Social Research Discussion Group
Location tbc
starting March 2026
Marxist inspirations are present in theoretical works and qualitative research, but they are relatively absent from contemporary quantitative social research. Presenting our quantitative research on social class and inequality, we have noticed that there are few (possibly none) spaces focused on this type of research: quantitative social science is nowadays far removed from Marxism and Marxist-influenced events rarely feature any type of statistical and similar research. We would like to organise low-threshold meetings for researchers working with quantitative data and Marxist themes. We hope that we can exchange experiences and learn from each other by presenting our research to all interested and discussing specific methodological challenges.
Amsterdam - University of Amsterdam / hybrid Grundrisse from March, preparatory reading of Proudhon from January.
Fortnightly sessions, Tuesday 5-7 starting date 13th January
We will read Marx's unfinished text Grundrisse. This is a group focused on understanding Marx from a philosophical perspective, and our reading is primarily interested in thinking about Marxist philosophy and its implications.
This group is open to all who are interested in a philosophical approach to Marxist theory and practice, but is intended for those who have completed Capital Volume 1 as a minimum requirement. Please send an email introducing yourself with a brief overview of your experience, or you can ask if you are unsure.
You are welcome to join either in January (reading Proudhon), or in March (Marx - Grundrisse).
Discussion will take place in English using the Penguin version. Schedule
January - February 2026: reading Proudhon ‘System of Economic Contradictions, or The Philosophy of Poverty’
March 2026 onwards: Marx’s ‘Grundrisse’
We will meet once every two weeks on Tuesday 17.00-19.00, starting in January. For every session, we will read one or several chapters and one or two people will present the readings to start the discussion, typically 40 pages. We expect members to participate in all sessions, and regularly present. We aim to create a friendly and convivial environment where we can disagree respectfully and explore a challenging theoretical contribution together.
Organised by Oscar Talbot and Veerle van Wijngaarden
For more information contact o.l.talbot@uva.nl or v.a.vanwijngaarden@uva.nl
About
You’re a student in the Netherlands and you can’t find a course on Marxist theory, political economy or history of the labor movement in your program? Or are you a researcher who would like to break through the isolation and connect with others who work with Marxist approaches? Or an activist that would like to know what Marxists have to offer for your politics these days?
Amid global turmoil, the rise of far-right and fascist politics around the world, university budget cuts and political attacks on our institutions during the protests in solidarity with Palestine, we came together as a group of Marxist students, researchers, and teachers active in the Netherlands, to unite and defend our trenches.
We created a platform (marxism-nl.org) and a network (Marxist Research Group), to connect existing initiatives, share resources, and collaborate on new activities.
This website presents the network and the initiatives of the Marxist Research Group.
marxism-nl.org promotes both academic and non-academic events such as public lectures, societal and political debates, reading groups, book launches by members or affiliated groups. It is open to whoever is interested and aims at fostering strategic and practical collaborations within and outside academia.
