marx200

Marx@200 Inaugural Event. Kathy M. Newman and David Shumway lecture: "Why Marx Now: 200 Years Later" and movie "The Young Marx"

For the last 50 years Karl Marx has been a central figure for the humanities—we have used his work to explain history, to analyze art, to philosophize, and to interpret literature. According to one study Marx is the single most frequently cited scholar in the humanities.

As we look ahead to Marx’s 200th birthday, coming up in May of 2018, we see that Marx and his writings have become increasingly relevant since the global financial collapse of 2008. Marx's book sales are up, and so are articles and events—written by journalists and organized by scholars around the world. Come find out why we think Marx still matters, and learn about the exciting year of speakers, art exhibits and events we have planned.

September 14th
4:30 pm
Porter Hall 100

6:00 pm
Catered reception in Conan room, Cohon University Center

Pittsburgh premiere of feature film, The Young Karl Marx (2017)

7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
McConomy Auditorium, Cohon University Center

At the age of 26, Karl Marx embarks with his wife Jenny on the road to exile. In Paris in 1844 they meet young Friedrich Engels, son of a factory owner, who’s studied the sordid beginnings of the English proletariat. The three together, Karl, Jenny and Friedrich, between censorship and police raids, riots and political upheavals, preside over the birth of the labor movement, which until then had been mostly makeshift and unorganized. This will grow into the most complete theoretical and political transformation of the world since the Renaissance – driven, against all expectations, by this brilliant, insolent and sharp-witted young trio.

The film’s director, Raoul Peck, the Haitian director who also made I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, explains why he wanted to tell Marx’s story: “A few years back, while the world was going through yet another financial crisis, I felt the need to go back to the basics: The analysis of the violent capitalist society we are still embedded in, through these three young Europeans of wealthy families (Karl, Friedrich and Jenny) who decided to change this utterly unequal world. And they eventually did; though not the way they imagined it.”

Lecture

14. September 2017, 16:30 Uhr
Carnegie Mellon University
Humanities Center, PA 15213 Pittsburgh, United States
Veranstalter: 
Humanities Center Pittsburg University