This session of the International Relations Working Group features Eren Duzgun, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Cyprus. He will introduce his new book, Radicalizing Global IR: Beyond Capitalism and Eurocentrism, published earlier this year.
The session will begin with a brief presentation on the book and Dr. Duzgun’s broader research agenda in Global IR, followed by a Q&A. Students are encouraged both to ask questions about his work and to explore connections with their own research.
About the book "Radicalizing Global IR"
What if the deepest resources for globalising IR lie not in capitalist modernity, but in humanity's much older struggles against hierarchy? This book argues that Global IR cannot become genuinely anti-Eurocentric unless it breaks decisively with 'methodological presentism': the tendency to read the past in terms of the present. Engaging Global IR debates, and drawing on Karl Polanyi, Political Marxism, and evolutionary anthropology, the book offers a non-presentist macro-historical narrative. It mobilises deep history to trace the millennia-old human capacities to refuse domination, pursue autonomy, and sustain cooperation, thereby inviting readers to fundamentally rethink the sources of human interconnectedness and solidarity. On this basis, it proposes 'radical modernity', rooted in the prehistoric legacy of 'radical egalitarianism', as an alternative to capitalist modernity. Radical modernity is not a Western achievement later diffused to the non-Western world, but an alternative foundation for rethinking universality, difference, and the 'international' from below.
About the speaker
Dr. Eren Duzgun is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Cyprus. He received his PhD in Political Science from York University and has held academic positions at Leiden University and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His research lies at the intersection of historical sociology, political economy, and International Relations. His work examines both the historical construction of modernity and the possibilities for challenging the inequalities and hierarchies that structure contemporary politics, with particular attention to the roles of capitalism and colonialism. His previous book, Capitalism, Jacobinism and International Relations: Revisiting Turkish Modernity, was published in 2022. Dr. Duzgun’s visit to the EUI is sponsored by the EU Widening Programme.
The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.
The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.
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