Week Six (27 February, Lecture Room VII)
Primary: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, Chapters 15-16
Supplementary: Valerie Solanas, ‘SCUM Manifesto’ (1967)

Week Five (20 February, Old Library)
Primary: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, Chapters 13-14
Supplementary: Mark Fisher, ‘Good For Nothing’ (2014); Johanna Hedva, ‘Sick Woman Theory’ (2022)

Week Five (20 February, Old Library)
Primary: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, Chapters 13-14
Supplementary: Mark Fisher, ‘Good For Nothing’ (2014); Johanna Hedva, ‘Sick Woman Theory’ (2022)

Week Three (6 February, Old Library)
Primary: Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, Chapters 7-9
Supplementary: Mirta Vidal, ‘Chicanas Speak Out, Women: New Voice of La Raza’ (1971)

The talk explores what mistakes were made with regard to the semi-periphery by focusing on two pivotal countries that were mostly left out of the liberal international order (LIO) in the 1990s even though they sought to belong: Russia and Turkey. The LIO never settled on a consistent policy regarding their incorporation. Halfway recognition—or alternating between inclusion and exclusion—is even worse than aloofness or full alienation because it first creates expectations and then creates resentment when those expectations are not met.

Although few could define it, “civilian morale” became one of the twentieth century’s most lethal concepts. In its name, millions of civilians were bombed and starved, as belligerents sought to break enemy morale through air raids and food blockades. How did it become normal to wage war by attacking cities and civilian morale? From the First World War through the Second, ideas and practices surrounding morale and the “home fronts” circulated rapidly in a transnational process.

As global politics shifts toward great-power competition and zero-sum thinking, the European Union faces a stark test of survival. Once built around multilateralism, rules, and win-win integration, the EU now confronts war on its borders, economic pressure from China, and an increasingly unreliable United States. This panel explores whether Europe can adapt to a more hostile world and defend its vital interests without abandoning its core identity and fundamental values.