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We are proud to recognize SJE Assistant Professor Dr. Shozab Raza for co-convening the international workshop (October 16–18, 2025), in collaboration with Jack Sidnell and Aaron Eldridge of the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology. We also extend gratitude to Graduate Assistants Yifan Liu (PhD candidate, SJE) and Jacob Bessen (PhD student, Anthropology) for their invaluable support. 

The three-day event examined how Marxist theory and practice have historically depended on processes of translation—not just between languages, but also between cultural contexts and social registers. As articulated in the workshop framework, translation was explored along three axes: 

“Translation across socio-cultural realities,” inspired by Sudipta Kaviraj’s claim that applying Marxist concepts to different historical contexts requires negotiating “two conceptual languages, two cultures, [and] different historical trajectories.” 

“Translation across linguistic registers,” recognizing that Marxist analysis — originally developed in technical academic vocabulary — has often been reformulated into oral forms such as poetry or dramatic performance in order to circulate among non-literate or working-class audiences. 

“Translation across languages,” foregrounding how Marxism’s internationalist character has always involved deliberate rearticulation, with figures such as Marx himself contributing prefaces to translated editions and adjusting terminology as concepts travelled between German, French, English, and beyond. 

The workshop featured some of the most widely cited and field-defining theorists in Marxist and decolonial scholarship, including Sudipta Kaviraj, Glen Coulthard, Samera Esmeir, and Gary Wilder.  

Dr. Raza delivered opening remarks and chaired multiple sessions throughout the workshop, helping to guide conversations that treated Marxism not as a fixed doctrine but, “a living tradition… something more like a wave or ocean tide than a building of bricks and mortar.” 

More information and full program details are available at:  

More highlights from the November 2025 SJE Newsletter