Welcome to the web-site of the International Social Theory Consortium!
The ISTC is a grouping of teaching and research programs in social theory around the planet that is dedicated to maintaining diverse traditions of social theorizing in the social sciences and humanities as key sources of rigorous and critical research and interpretation. In addition, the ISTC is committed to examining and promoting new developments in social theory as an inter-disciplinary and post-disciplinary practice directed at transcending the established divisions within social science and the humanities, respectively, and especially the boundaries between both fields of inquiry. Initially established by programs at the University of Kentucky, the University of South Florida, Penn State University and the University of Arizona in the United States; York University in Canada; the University of Sussex and the University of Warwick in Britain; National University Singapore; La Trobe University in Australia, and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, it now has over forty-five affiliates world-wide.
The Consortium's primary activity is the organization and hosting of annual conferences, usually (but neither exclusively nor necessarily) alternating between Europe and North America. Recent conferences were held at the Free University of Bolzano in Brixen (2023) University of Tennessee (online, 2022) and the University of South Florida (online, 2021), in Dubrovnik, Croatia (2019), Chicago, Illinois (2018), Innsbruck, Austria (2017), Ames, Iowa (2016), Cambridge, UK (2015), and Knoxville, Tennessee (2014). The annual conference provides a forum for social and political theorists to discuss issues of importance to understanding current times and trends.
The ISTC is a grouping of teaching and research programs in social theory around the planet that is dedicated to maintaining diverse traditions of social theorizing in the social sciences and humanities as key sources of rigorous and critical research and interpretation. In addition, the ISTC is committed to examining and promoting new developments in social theory as an inter-disciplinary and post-disciplinary practice directed at transcending the established divisions within social science and the humanities, respectively, and especially the boundaries between both fields of inquiry. Initially established by programs at the University of Kentucky, the University of South Florida, Penn State University and the University of Arizona in the United States; York University in Canada; the University of Sussex and the University of Warwick in Britain; National University Singapore; La Trobe University in Australia, and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, it now has over forty-five affiliates world-wide.
The Consortium's primary activity is the organization and hosting of annual conferences, usually (but neither exclusively nor necessarily) alternating between Europe and North America. Recent conferences were held at the Free University of Bolzano in Brixen (2023) University of Tennessee (online, 2022) and the University of South Florida (online, 2021), in Dubrovnik, Croatia (2019), Chicago, Illinois (2018), Innsbruck, Austria (2017), Ames, Iowa (2016), Cambridge, UK (2015), and Knoxville, Tennessee (2014). The annual conference provides a forum for social and political theorists to discuss issues of importance to understanding current times and trends.
NEW DATES AND MODALITY!
The next annual conference will be held ONLINE and hosted by the
University of Tennessee
in Knoxville in June 19-21, 2025.
Theme:
Reality Lost? How to Recapture an Increasingly Elusive World
See http://socialtheory.org/istc-2025.html
The next annual conference will be held ONLINE and hosted by the
University of Tennessee
in Knoxville in June 19-21, 2025.
Theme:
Reality Lost? How to Recapture an Increasingly Elusive World
See http://socialtheory.org/istc-2025.html
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In March 2025, ISTC steering board members Daniel Krier and Harry F. Dahms organized and hosted the second thematically focused symposium in the Kontrapunkt series that began during the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society. This year, the event coincided with the annual conference of the Midwest Sociological Society in Chicago (see link.pdf) . Kontrapunkt II A Symposium on the Critical Social Theory of Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer March 13-14, 2025 |
An initiative started by ISTC steering board member Steffen Roth:
Online Brainstorming:
Guiding Distinctions of Social Science
Launched by the Next Society Institute, the International Social Theory Consortium, and the Luhmann Conference community,
this brainstorming initiative is supported by the European Sociological Association and linked to two dedicated special issues, see link.
Online Brainstorming:
Guiding Distinctions of Social Science
Launched by the Next Society Institute, the International Social Theory Consortium, and the Luhmann Conference community,
this brainstorming initiative is supported by the European Sociological Association and linked to two dedicated special issues, see link.
In October 2024, ISTC director Harry F. Dahms organized a Theory Mini-Conference in the context of the annual conference of the Mid-South Sociological Society.
Social Changes and Resistance:
Looking Back to Move Forward
October 16-19, 2024
The purpose of the mini-conference is to situate present circumstances at the intersection of the past and the future. The MSSA invites submissions that interrogate whether and how opportunities still remain (or might be at the brink of opening up) for humans to identify and resist increasingly problematic trends in social life and social structure, and to influence or shape future trends that allow for greater and constructive agency. The conference will have both an in-person and an online component. See link.
Social Changes and Resistance:
Looking Back to Move Forward
October 16-19, 2024
The purpose of the mini-conference is to situate present circumstances at the intersection of the past and the future. The MSSA invites submissions that interrogate whether and how opportunities still remain (or might be at the brink of opening up) for humans to identify and resist increasingly problematic trends in social life and social structure, and to influence or shape future trends that allow for greater and constructive agency. The conference will have both an in-person and an online component. See link.
In July 2024, the ISTC supported a thematically focused conference
organized by steering board member Frank Welz at the University of Innsbruck, in Austria:
Adorno's Sociology
International Conference
July 4-6, 2024
Call for Papers
Conference website
Program
In April 2024, ISTC steering board member Daniel Krier organized and hosted what was supposed to be the first of a series of thematically focused symposia. This year, the event coincided with the annual conference of the Midwest Sociological Society in Des Moines, Iowa.
Kontrapunkt
A Symposium on the Critical Social Theory of
Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer
April 5-7, 2024
Director
Harry F. Dahms
Department of Sociology
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
hdahms@utk.edu
ISTC Email Address:
istc@socialtheory.org
Steering Committee:
Daniel Krier (Iowa State University)
Eric R. Lybeck (Manchester University)
Ilaria Riccioni (Free University Bolzano)
Steffen Roth (La Rochelle Business School)
Christopher Schlembach (University of Vienna)
Stephen Turner (University of South Florida)
Frank Welz (University of Innsbruck)
Krešimir Žažar (University of Zagreb)
Harry F. Dahms
Department of Sociology
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
hdahms@utk.edu
ISTC Email Address:
istc@socialtheory.org
Steering Committee:
Daniel Krier (Iowa State University)
Eric R. Lybeck (Manchester University)
Ilaria Riccioni (Free University Bolzano)
Steffen Roth (La Rochelle Business School)
Christopher Schlembach (University of Vienna)
Stephen Turner (University of South Florida)
Frank Welz (University of Innsbruck)
Krešimir Žažar (University of Zagreb)