Anarchism Research Group

The Loughborough ARG:

  • provides an informal space for the discussion, exploration and analysis of anarchist ideas and practices;
  • supports anarchism research across scholarly disciplines in the University;
  • helps raise the profile of anarchist studies through scholarship and public engagement;
  • co-ordinates with national and international networks to promote collaborative work and anarchism research;
  • organises seminars for researchers working on aspects of anarchist history and politics.

The ARG was established in 2008. It contributes to the social, political and cultural theory strand in the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture. The group collaborates locally with the Politicized Practice Research Group and is networked internationally through the Anarchist Studies Network (a specialist group of the UK Political Studies Association). The group also collaborates with the Politicised Practice Research Group in the Critical Citizenship, Activism and Art initiative.  

The journal, Anarchist Studies, is co-edited by ARG members, Matthew Adams and Ruth Kinna. ARG member Jim Donaghey edits the Anarchist Studies Blog.

Our seminars are free and open to all. 

Current Programme 2020-21

The ARG, in collaboration with the Anarchist Studies Network was awarded funding as part of the Political Studies Association’s 2020 Research and Innovation scheme for a seminar series aimed at expanding inclusion in anarchist studies. The series will explore structural inequalities and exclusions from an anarchist studies perspective and aims to be inclusive of independent scholars and/or scholars who face barriers to access in academic as a result of political, social, cultural or economic discrimination and inequality, including (but not limited to) working class, BAME, female, LGBT+ and disabled scholars, and scholars at the intersections of these. The series has also received support from the POLIS subject group and the School for Social Sciences and Humanities EDI initiative at Loughborough University.

Please check our social media sites for updates. You can follow us on:

Facebook www.facebook.com/arglboro

Instagram www.instagram.com/arglboro/

Twitter www.twitter.com/arglboro

Youtube www.youtube.com/channel/UCCqa3o6D1Uv3kwx5RHQD1Yw

If you’re interested in finding out more about us, you can also contact one of our co-ordinators (Matthew Adams – M.S.Adams@lboro.ac.uk,  Alex Christoyannopoulos - A.Christoyannopoulos@lboro.ac.uk; Ruth Kinna - R.E.Kinna@lboro.ac.uk or Thomas Swann - T.Swann@lboro.ac.uk).

Name/EventAffiliationTitleDate / time / room
Martin Parker, Konstantin Stoborod and Thomas Swann University of Bristol, Independent, Loughborough University Anarchism, Organisation and Management

Wednesday 19th October, 13:00-14:00

Online
Saptadeepa Banerjee Gurudas College, University of Calcutta Reading Bakunin in Anarchist History: Interpretations and Perspectives

Wednesday 9th December, 15:00-16:00

Online
Alexandre Christoyannopoulos Loughborough University An Anarcho-Pacifist Theory of International Relations

Wednesday 3rd March, 14:00-15:00

Online
Erica Lagalisse London School of Economics/Loughborough University Occult Features of Anarchism

Wednesday 28th April, 14:00-15:00

Online
Lidia Iazzolino Anglia Ruskin University Dora Marsden’s Egoism

Wednesday 12th May, 14:00-15:00

Online

ARG members are also involved in, and encouraging participation at, the Anarchist Studies Network 6th international conference.

Co-ordinators:

Matt Adams,  Alex ChristoyannopoulosRuth Kinna, Thomas Swann, Samuel Garrett.

Members & Associates:

Professor Peter Ackers, Visiting Professor in the History of International Relations, Loughborough School of Business and Economics

Oscar Addis, Doctoral Student Loughborough University

Sebastian Averill, Doctoral Student, Loughborough University

Dr Dave Berry, Honorary Fellow, Loughborough University

Jon Bigger, Doctoral Student, Loughborough University       

Dr Will Boisseau (PhD Loughborough)

Dr John Cromby, Professor of Psychology, University of Leicester

Dr James Donaghey, Research Fellow, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queens University, Belfast Loughborough University

Dr Teresa Xavier Fernandes, (PhD Loughborough)

Shane Little, Doctoral Student, Loughborough University

James McIntyre, Doctoral Student, Loughborough University

Dr. Alex Prichard, Associate Professor, Exeter University

Peterson Silva, Visiting Doctoral Student (2019-20), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarian, Brazil

Dr Matthew Wilson (PhD Loughborough)

Dr Elizabeth Vasileva (PhD Loughborough)

You’ll find many of our publications freely available on the university's Institutional Repository. Seminar papers and videos of ARG seminars are also available on this site. Click on the links below to access the repository

Matthew Adams

Alex Christoyannopoulos

Ruth Kinna

Thomas Swann

Recent Publications

  • Matthew Adams & Ruth Kinna eds. Anarchism 1914-18: Internationalism, anti-militarism and war, Manchester university press. Link: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526115775/
  • Alex Christoyannopoulos, Tolstoy’s Political Thought: Christian Anarcho-Pacifist Iconoclasm Then and Now Routledge

Link: https://www.routledge.com/Tolstoys-Political-Thought-Christian-Anarcho-Pacifist-Iconoclasm-Then/Christoyannopoulos/p/book/9780429330957

  • Ruth Kinna, The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism, Pelican
    (Shortlisted for the 2020 Bread and Roses Award)

Link: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/300/300055/the-government-of-no-one/9780241396551.html

  • Martin Parker, Konstantin Storbord and Thomas Swann eds. Anarchism, Organisation and Management: Critical Perspectives for Students, Routledge

Link: https://www.routledge.com/Anarchism-Organization-and-Management-Critical-Perspectives-for-Students/Parker-Stoborod-Swann/p/book/9781138044111

  • Thomas Swann, Anarchist Cybernetics. Control and Communication in Radical Politics, Bristol: Bristol University Press (2020).

Link: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/anarchist-cybernetics

PhD theses completed at Loughborough:

Matt Adams

Matt has published articles in the journals History of European Ideas; History of Political Thought; Journal of the History of Ideas; Journal of Political Ideologies; Anarchist Studies; Historical Research; Forum for Modern Language Studies; Intellectual History Review and Political Research Exchange

Alex Christoyannopoulos

Ruth Kinna

Ruth’s work has appeared in Strike! MagazineDope, Gata Negra and DIY Culture. She has published ten pamphlets in the Great Anarchists series with Dog Section Press and Clifford Harper (available in audio on YouTube) and presented the Anarchy Night School at Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham and the Incite Seminars.

 

Thomas Swann

  • 2020: (with Ruth Kinna) 'This anarchist thinker helps explain why we feel so driven to help each other through the coronavirus crisis', The Conversation, 27 2020(Dutch translation published at Small Stream Media, 9 April 2020)
  • 2018: Public discussion event held at the Andrymi social centre in Reykjavik, Iceland in September
  • 2018: Public talks on anarchism and intersectionality at Spartacus Books, Vancouver, 29 May 2018 and Lakehead University, Orillia, 6 June 2018.
  • 2017: Participation in anarchism and research discussion at London Anarchist Bookfair in October
  • 2017: Public discussion workshop on anarchy and constitutionalising (with Seeds for Change) at London Anarchist Bookfair in October
  • 2016: Public discussion workshops on anarchy and constitutionalising. Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair, Glasgow Radical Independent Bookfair, London Anarchist Bookfair
  • 2016: (with Ruth Kinna and Alex Prichard) ‘Anarchy in the USA: five years on, the legacy of Occupy Wall Street and what it can teach us in the Age of Trump’, The Conversation, 10 November 2016 (republished by Raw Story and The Political Anthropologist)
  • 2016: (with Ruth Kinna and Alex Prichard) ‘What the Yes campaign can learn from Iceland, Occupy and anarchy’, CommonSpace, 1 November 2016.
  • 2016: (with Ruth Kinna and Alex Prichard) ‘Iceland’s crowd-sourced constitution: hope for disillusioned voters everywhere’, The Conversation, 28 October 2016 (republished by TIME Magazine) – Readership over 30,000
  • 2015: ‘Social media and movements: is the love affair really over?’, Roar Magazine, 31st July 2015.
  • 2014: ‘Anarchy in the Business School’, OpenDemocracy, 10th December 2014.
  • 2014: ‘Why anarchists should vote “Yes”’, Bella Caledonia, 16th September 2014.
  • 2014: ‘Creating the future on the road to Scottish independence’, Roar Magazine, 12th September 2014.
  • 2014: ‘Demanding and Defining Alternative Media’, Heathwood Press, 29th August 2014.
  • 2014: ‘Another University is Possible’, Times Higher Education, 14th August 2014 (winner of the Times Higher Education and Higher Education Policy Institute Scottish independence essay competition).
  • 2014: ‘The cybernetics of Occupy: an anarchist perspective’, Roar Magazine, 20th June 2014
  • 2013: New Perspectives on Anarchism and Management, public talk and discussion. University of Leicester

Past speakers (2019-20)

Name/EventAffiliationTitleDateRoom
Coleen Morgan University of York Anarchism & Archaeology: generative approaches to past societies and present practice Wednesday 19th February, 13:00-14:30 MAR105 Matthew Arnold building room
Peterson Silva Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina Conceptualizing freedom in anarchism Wednesday 1st April, 13:00-14:30 K109 Herbert Manzoni building
Mike Finn University of Exeter Looking for anarchism in all the wrong places? Anarchist  influences on the British Labour movement Friday 13th Novemeber, 13:00-14:30  K109 Herbert Manzoni building

Past speakers (2018-19)

Name/EventAffiliationTitleDateRoomInformation
Sidonie Verhaeghe Lille Anarchist Louise Michel in the republican pantheon: the understanding of a historical figure's posterity Wednesday 20th February, 13:00-14:30 K.1.09  
Erica Lagalisse London School of Economics Adventures in Anarcolandia:  The Complexities and Contradictions of Transnational Anarchist Social Movements Wednesday 6th March, 13:00-14:30 K.1.09  
New Syndicalist Editorial Team New Syndicalist New Media for a New Workers’ Movement: Syndicalism for the 21st Century Friday 22nd February 17:00-18:30 K.1.05  

Past speakers (2017-18)

Name/EventAffiliationTitleDateRoomInformation
James Yeoman The University of Sheffield Writing the Revolutionary Self: Memoir and Autobiography in the Spanish Anarchist Movement Wednesday 13th December K.1.05  
Marcus Collins Loughborough University The Beatles and the Revolutionary Left: Anarchists, Pacifists, Marxists and Counterculturalists in 1960s and 1970s Britain Wednesday 11th October, 5PM K.1.09  
Paul Raekstad University of Amsterdam Democratisation and
> Prefigurative Politics: A Defence
Wednesday 14th March 2018, 5PM K.1.05  

Past speakers (2016-17)

Name/EventAffiliationTitleDateRoomInformation
Antonis Vradis Loughborough University TBA Wednesday 25th January, 5PM K.1.05  
Professor Erika Cudworth The University of East London Beyond the imperial human: towards a creaturely politics Wednesday 8th February, 5PM K.1.05  
Professor Peter Ackers De Montfort University Ackers Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain Wednesday 22nd February, 5PM  K.1.05  
Dr. Natasha King The University of Nottingham No Borders: the politics of immigration control and resistance Wednesday the 15th of March at 5PM K.105  
Dr. Danny Evans The University of Leeds 'The Spanish Kronstadt? The Barcelona May days 80 years on' Wednesday the 3rd of May  K1.05  
Professor Carl Levy Goldsmiths, University of London Anarchists and the City , Cold War City to Occupy/Square Movements, 1945 -2011 Tuesday 9th May, 5PM  K.1.05   

Past speakers (2015-16)

NameAffiliationDateRoom 
Elizabet Vasileva   Anarchist Studies Network Fourth International Conference 14-16 September 2016  
Scott Crow Independent What, Me Worry? The Rise Of The Surveillance State & What We Can Do About It Tuesday 27 October, 5pm J202 (in the Edward Herbert Building)
Grietje Baars  City University London Explaining the 'obvious' interconnection of all struggles: Conversations on veganism, gender and queer liberation with the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall Wednesday 27 January, 5pm K105 (in Manzoni)
Nick Kiersey Ohio University Occupy Dame Street and Irish Left Strategy: Lessons and Possible Futures Wednesday 2 March, 5pm K105 (in Manzoni)
Colin Bruce   Towards Green Anarchism: Total Liberation and the Abolition of Hierarchy Wednesday 27 April 5pm K105 (in Manzoni)
Robert Lamb University of Exeter In Defence of the Citizen-Philosopher: Political Theory and the Idea of Expertise Wednesday 18 May 5pm K105 (in Manzoni) 

Past speakers (2014-15)

An exciting innovation was the Critical Citizenship, Activism and Art Series 2014-15, whereby The Politicized Practice Research Group and the Anarchism Research Group joined forces with a broader range of Loughborough researchers to convene a series of events on Critical Citizenship, Activism and Art. The events, under the banner of the Communication, Culture and Citizenship Research Challenge, exhibited and reflected on the use of diverse forms of art to question prevailing political, economic and cultural orthodoxies. In our shrinking world, where communication media remain dominated by entrenched interests and surveillance, critical citizens are developing creative tactics and performances to provoke debate in the public sphere. This series is a space to showcase and critically discuss art activists’ efforts to give a voice to the excluded, promote inclusive alternatives, and enrich global culture and citizenship. This series builds on local multidisciplinary strengths and specialisms, and contributes to the University’s strategic ambitions to enhance the global community’s social, cultural and economic wellbeing, to put forward solutions to contemporary global challenges, and to impact national and international citizenship practices.

Past speakers (2012-13)

Name Affiliation Title Date Room
Allan Antliff University of Victoria Pacifist-Anarchism and the Arts: Kenneth Patchen, Jackson MacLow, John Cage and Donald Judd 31 October, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)
Kathy Ferguson Hawaii Anarchist women of the first wave 7 November, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)
Diogo Duarte Instituto de Historia Contemporânea, Lisbon Anarchism and the State in Portugal in the early 20th century 5 December, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)
Peter Ryley Independent Anarchism's Hidden Histories: Researching Individualism in 19th Century Britain 13 February, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)
Uri Gordon Loughborough Contemporary Anarchist Critiques of the State 24 April, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)
Constance Bantman Surrey Transnational lives - internationalism and nationalism in Belle Epoque anarchism 1 May, 5-6:30pm A204 (Schofield)

Past speakers (2011-2012)

Name Affiliation Title Date
Georgios Sagriotis Panteion and Patras Benjamin and Anarchism (paper available below) 2/11/11
Anthony Fiscella Lund University, Center for Theology and Religious Studies From Anarcho-Fascism to Libertarian Spirituality: What Does it Men to be Free? 29/11/11
Christos Memos University of York Anarchism and Marxism: In Search of Lost Revolutionary Time 18/1/12
Judy Greenway East London ‘Not the Church and not the State, women must decide our fate’: anarchist feminists and the politics of reproduction. 8/2/12
Diane Morgan Leeds Seriality and Everyone's Place Under the Sun: Proudhon with Kant (paper available below) 7/3/12
Andrew Cornell Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3  The Evolution U.S. Anarchism in the Mid-20th Century: From Mother Earth to the Fifth Estate 25/4/12
Richard Morgan UCL  Hygiene is the best of medicines': Petr Kropotkin and Criminological Science.  16/5/12

Past speakers (2010-11)

Name Affiliation Title Date
Cris Iliopoulos Loughborough The anarchist aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy (paper available below) 06/12/10
Maurizio Atzeni Loughborough Worker Occupations in Argentina (paper available here) 26/01/11
Charlotte Alston Northumbria Tolstoyism: An international movement in the late 19th / early 20th centuries  09/03/11 
Emma Dixon  Bangor  Women, Love and Anarchism: Anarcho-Sexism and The Rise of British Second Wave Feminism  04/05/11 
Gabriel Kuhn  independent Gustav Landauer, Erich Mühsam, and Anarchism in Germany  05/05/11

Past speakers (2010)

Name Title Date
Saul Newman Postanarchism and contemporary politics (paper available below) 10/12/08 
Paul McLaughlin  Bakunin and Marx: An Unbridgeable Chasm? (paper available below) 26/01/09 
Ben Franks Anarchism and the Problem of Political Philosophy (slides available below) 13/05/09 
Paul Blackledge  Between science and morality: Victor Serge and Simon Critchley on Marxism, anarchism and the ethics of anti?capitalism  10/03/10

Seminar papers/slides for download: