Keynote: George Steinmetz (University of Michigan)
Public Event with Austrian Ambassador His Excellency Martin Weiss

Please Join Us :
This conference takes the centenary of the death of the Austrian Jewish social philosopher Popper-Lynkeus as a starting point to re-examine the powers and responsibilities of the modern state. Popper-Lynkeus’s writings on the state’s obligation to provide a minimum of food, housing, welfare, and health care became the center of great attention only in his later years and after the collapse of empires. Among his admirers and interlocutors were prominent figures such as Albert Einstein, Bertha Pauli, Sigmund Freud, Franz Oppenheimer, and Rosa Luxemburg. Key ideas driving Popper-Lynkeus’s thought included the principle of free enterprise combined with security for all, and the vision of a criminal justice system concerned with protection rather than punishment. Today, these ideas resonate in intense debates about the role of government—in everything from equity and social justice to infrastructure and public services, especially in light of a pandemic and of repeated violence against marginalized groups. The conference brings together voices from a variety of perspectives to explore the state—famously dubbed by Nietzsche the ultimate “idol” and “coldest monster”—through the lens of social, economic or political reform; ideal and utopian re-imagination; and communitarian, anarchic, and other forms of critique.
Expected Schedule for April 6-8:

Wednesday, April 6:
5:00PM, Monroe Hall 130:
Opening Keynote: George Steinmetz (University of Michigan).

Thursday, April 7:
9:00-10:30AM, New Cabell Hall 236:
Imperial States: The Waning of Empires and the Idea of the State. A Conversation With George Steinmetz.
Emily Burrill (History) | Kevin Duong (Politics) | Isaac Reed (Sociology) | Jeffrey Olick (Sociology) | Chair: Erik Linstrum

10:45AM-Noon:
Critical States: Visions and Voices from the Margins
Malachi Hacohen (Duke) | Louise Hecht (Vienna/Katz Center) | Chair: Asher Biemann (UVA)

2:00-3:30PM:
Alternate States: Reforming Life, Imagining Community
Eva Barlösius (University of Hannover) | Jonathan Foster (Stockholm University) |
Steven Press (Stanford) | Chair: Marcel Schmid (UVA)

4:00-5:30PM:
Ideal States: Utopian Visions at the Limits of the Political
Claudia Willms (Goethe University, Frankfurt) | Emma Davis (Northwestern) | Dieter Hecht (Vienna/Katz Center) | Chair: Caroline Kahlenberg (UVA)

Friday, April 8:
9:00-10:30AM:
Social States: Welfare and Experimental Economies
Robert Leucht (University of Lausanne) | Sarah Jacobson (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) | Anton Korinek (UVA) | Chair: Manuela Achilles (UVA)

12:00-1:00PM, Frank Batten School, Great Hall:
Public Event with Austrian Ambassador His Excellency Martin Weiss

The keynote lecture with George Steinmetz will be held in Monroe Hall 130. Conference panels will be held in New Cabell Hall 236. The public lecture by Austrian Ambassador His Excellency Martin Weiss will be held in the Great Hall at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

A collaboration of the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion, the European Studies Program, the Center for German Studies, the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Politics, and the Department of Germanic Languages and Cultures. Sponsored by the Page Barbour Workshop Committee.

We look forward to seeing you in April. Please contact Quintin Jepson, Assistant to the European Studies Program, at qj3dq@virginia.edu with questions.