Across a career now spanning forty years Krishan Kumar has, like Thesis Eleven itself, led from behind or on the side. His work has covered many of the perennials – revolution, utopia – always hinged, after 1917, to dystopia, progress and prophecy, modern and postmodern, nation and national identity, empires, and so on. He also has the distinction of being the only sociologist to bear constant presence in the TLS. In this conversation we will look to discussing these big themes, but also to connecting up biography and the personal – how does a project like this become possible, and what might its implications be for scholars in training now?

Friday 13 December, 2 – 4 pm

La Trobe University, 215 Franklin St, Melbourne

Room: FS 104

Krishan Kumar is University Professor, as well as William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He was previously Professor of Social and Political Thought at the University of Kent at Canterbury, England. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Cambridge and his postgraduate education at the London School of Economics. Among his publications are Prophecy and Progress: The Sociology of Industrial and Post-Industrial Society; Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times; The Rise of Modern Society; From Post-Industrial to Post-Modern Society; 1989: Revolutionary Ideas and Ideals; The Making of English National Identity.