Course PhD Masterclass with Professor Lea Ypi

Course description

This Ph.d.-masterclass with Professor Lea Ypi (London School of Economics) will offer participants a chance of discussing texts by Ypi, to present their own work, and reflect upon how their own research may gain from engaging with Ypi’s work. The overarching disciplines for which this masterclass is relevant are those working within the areas of intellectual history/the history of ideas, history, philosophy, political theory, and literature. In particular, the masterclass is intended for Ph.D. students whose work relates thematically to that of Lea Ypi, such as the themes of global justice, political theory, Marxism and critical theory, Immanuel Kant, and European literature and history. Students are required to read about 100 pages of different readings by Ypi, and to send a 3-5 page project description or case study or other short text of their own choosing (Ph.D. students should submit their own, short research text about three weeks prior to the class, i.e. no later than Wednesday, October 1st). The three hour masterclass is thus comprised of two, main sections: a) discussion of Ypi’s work and b) discussion and feedback on minor texts by Ph.D.-students. In addition, Ph.D. students shall participate in the honorary lecture given by Lea Ypi taking place the following day (Friday, October 24th).  
 
Lea Ypi (FBA, FAE, FAA) is Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, a Permanent Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and a fellow of Academia Europea and of the Albanian Academy of Science. Born and raised in Albania, she has degrees in Philosophy and in Literature from the University of Rome La Sapienza, a PhD from the European University Institute and was a Post-Doctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. She is the author of Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency, The Meaning of Partisanship (with Jonathan White), and The Architectonic of Reason, all published by Oxford University Press. Her latest book, a philosophical memoir entitled Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, published by Penguin Press in the UK and W.W. Norton & Company in North America, won the 2022 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize and is being translated in more than thirty-five languages. Her academic work has been recognised with the British Academy Prize for Excellence in Political Science and the Leverhulme Prize for Outstanding Research Achievement. She coedits the journal Political Philosophy and occasionally writes for The Guardian and Financial Times. (Source: https://leaypi.com)

Aim

• To gain deeper insights into Ypi’s research; to relate own research to Ypi’s and develop new perspectives on own research. 

Target group/Participants

• PhD students, all stages of their Ph.D., working in the fields of intellectual history, philosophy, and sociology

Language 

• English

ECTS-credits

• 1

Lecturers

• Lea Ypi
• Christian Olaf Christiansen 

Literature

• Lea Ypi, Free, Penguin Press, last chapter of part I (End of History), and “Epilogue".
• Lea Ypi, Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency, introduction and chapter 2.
• Lea Ypi, What’s Wrong with Colonialism, published in Philosophy and Public Affairs
• Lea Ypi, On Revolution in Kant and Marx, published in Political Theory.
• Lea Ypi, The Meaning of Partisanship (with Jonathan White), introduction and chapter 2.

Preparation

Deadline for submitting a short text (project description, sample of own research, case-study, or similar) is 1 October 2025.

Venue

• 23 October 2025: Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7, Building 1467, Room 616

Course dates:

• 23 October 2025 13:00 - 17:00