Rewriting the History of Political Thought From the Margins Humboldt University Berlin, June 8-9, 2023 Lehrbereich Theorie der Politik Organizational committee: Ieva Motuzaite (Humboldt University Berlin), Alessandro Mulieri (University of Pennsylvania/Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Jenny Pelletier (University of Gothenburg), Liesbeth Schoonheim (Humboldt University Berlin) Call for Papers The history of political thought is usually narrated as a sequence of canonical authors reflecting on a limited set of perennial problems, such as justice, freedom, domination, tyranny, and the just regime. However, feminist and decolonial approaches have long contested this narrative. By tracing diverse lineages in the history of political thought, they seek to rectify problematic omissions while elucidating contemporary issues. In recent years, scholars working in the history of political thought have increasingly showed an interest in re-centering marginalized bodies of thought. This conference aims to set up a dialogue between these different approaches to shed light on the thematic, methodological, and political dimensions of rewriting the history of political thought. How can we place authors, traditions, and concepts center-stage that are typically relegated to the margins of the dominant historical narrative? Particular attention will be paid to marginalized concepts (slavery, foreignness, infidelity), non-Western and women political thinkers who have been excluded, and political events that have been dismissed as falling outside of the scope of political thought (for example the “woman question” or the Haitian revolution). In this workshop, we wish to contribute to the current discussion by addressing case studies, methodological questions, and strategies that aim to diffuse Western, male-centered history of political thought. Covering the period from the late Middle Ages to the present, this conference follows three closely interwoven threads: 1. By diversifying lineages in the history of political theory, we can redefine key concepts and themes. By focusing on forgotten radical experiments, traditions of political thought and activism, and neglected authors, some concepts in the history of political thought (such as the state, sovereignty, authority) might lose their centrality, while others (such as freedom, citizenship, property rights) might have various conflicting and alternative meanings. Such a “history of political concepts from below” (Bogues and Laudani) starts from the use of concepts within political struggles, rather than their theorization in canonical texts. Furthermore, if we do start from canonical texts, we will likely find theoretical reflections on politics scattered both in treaties on metaphysics and ethics (e.g. Ibn Sina, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn-Rushd, John of Jandun, Elijah Del Medigo) as well as through the works with a more forthright political intention (e.g. Giles of Rome, Ptolemy of Lucca, Marsilius of Padua, Leonardo Bruni, Donato Giannotti, the treatise of the Monarchomachs, Henry Parker, Ibn Khaldun etc.). How can we relate their reflections on politics to those in other fields, such as ontology and metaphysics, and what does this teach us about the various theorizations of social and political relations? Finally, the very periodization of political thought is the object of critique: how is exclusion and marginalization affected by the much-criticized notion of modernity? How does de-centering hegemonic texts and events (e.g. Machiavelli’s The Prince, the French Revolution) and the re-centering of other texts or events (e.g. the