News

Author’s Talk with Amjad Hussain

Creating Knowledge in Asia: Challenges & Opportunities with Syed Farid Alatas

Talking about Erich Fromm and Religion

On January 21, 2024, Dustin J. Byrd discussed the dialectics of religion regarding the thought of Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and philosopher. Byrd, who is the Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Critical Social Theory, argued for the need for the political Left to take seriously the emancipatory, compassionate, and transcendent elements of religion, to be religions’ custodians, unless such a “catalogue” of human thought, as Fromm called it, be weaponized against the “others” in Western society. Byrd was joined by Dr. Joan Braune, Dr. Rudolf J. Siebert, Dr. Rainer Funk, and Dr. Hille Haker. The event was sponsored by the Erich Fromm Society of North America.

Decolonizing Theory with Aditya Nigam

On February 11th, 2024, members of the Institute for Critical Social Theory will join Aditya Nigam to discuss his book, Decolonizing Theory: Thinking across Tradition. The participants include Syed Farid Alatas, Dustin J. Byrd, Michael Naughton, Mehdi Shariati and Seyed Javad Miri. The video can be found here: Aditya Nigam.

Dr. Dustin J. Byrd discusses Russian Political Theology

In September of 2023, Dr. Dustin J. Byrd, Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for Critical Social Theory, participated in the “Apocalyptic Times” conference at the University of Exeter. Here, he discusses the work of Alexander Dugin and his use of the Pauline concept of the “Katechon,” the “restrainer of the anti-Christ.”

“Islam and Postmodernism” with Amjad Hussein

“Akbarian Metaphysics” with Prof. Dr. Sajjad Rizvi

World Philosophy Day with Hadje Sadje:

“Sociology or Social Studies”

The co-director of the Institute for Critical Social Theory, Seyed Javad Miri, will participate in a forthcoming roundtable to discuss the importance of sociology as a discipline in solving expansive issues concerning human society. Sadly, in the past decades, we were faced with a trend where sociology (even the name of the discipline) was sidelined and replaced by a concocted name, i.e., “social studies.” Under this banner, disciplines such as Arabic, Islamic Studies, Islamic Philosophy, Security Studies, Management, and Political Science, were included as the discipline of social studies, while Sociology was shunned and suppressed. On Tuesday, September 26, 2024, a group of scholars will debate the importance sociological imagination and the significance of Sociology as a discipline. Participants include: Mustafa Mehraeen (Sociology); Seyed Javad Miri (Sociology); Hamid Tonekaboni (Management); Maryam Nasr Esfahani (Islamic Studies), and Somayeh Tohidlou (Sociology).

The event will take place at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

New Journal

Our journal, Islamic Perspective, will be transitioning into Critical Perspectives, the new official journal of the Institute for Critical Social Theory. This change will broaden our scope of inquiry and help us realize our aim of being interdisciplinary. The journal will continue to be peer-reviewed, bi-annual, and scholarly. We will begin to accept articles for publication in 2024.

ICST Members meet in Berlin

ICST members, Co-Directors Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri, along with Michael Naughton and Mehdi Shariati, met at the 3rd International Erich Fromm Research Conference in Berlin (June 2023). The Conference was hosted by the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin. Outside of the conference, the members discussed the future of the ICST, including the establishment of the new journal, Critical Perspectives, as well as the possibility of holding an in-person conference at the University of Bristol, UK, in 2025. More information is to come.

Call for Papers: Alexander Dugin and the Future of Russia

The Co-Directors of the Institute for Critical Social Theory, Dr. Dustin J. Byrd and Dr. Seyed Javad Miri, would like to invite qualified scholars to participate in a critical book project on the Russian philosopher, Alexander Dugin. While the official date to submit an abstract as past, the editors will consider proposals until the end of 2023. Please see the below call for papers.