3rd Max Weber Programme Lecture of 2026
Introducing a new, Berlin-based project called 'Ways of Worldmaking: The Global South and the Reimagination of Global Ocean Governance'. The talk will explore some ongoing struggles to articulate what the ocean is, what it can become, and whose word we should take for it. How do these engage the extractive imaginary that has been established by the current law of the sea, and its constitutional document, the UN Convention on the law of the sea? The talk will be an invitation to think together about the varying levels, scales and depths at which we can witness worldmaking on the sea, and what our approaches can do to illuminate, critique, and participate in these activities.
About the speaker:
Surabhi Ranganathan is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and the Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. She is the winner of the 2025 Humboldt- Max Planck Research Prize for her research on the history and political economy of ocean governance, and the pursuit of decolonisation within and against the law of the sea. Her writing on these topics has been published in leading law journals, edited collections and popular magazines like The Dial, and extensively covered in traditional and new media platforms. Ranganathan is also co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge History of International Law in Asia (Spring 2026), and the co-editor-in-chief of the now open-access Leiden Journal of International Law.
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