Colloque international "Engaging in left-wing politics in the United States: the left, social movements, and institutional politics (19th-21st centuries)"

Présentation

Après quelques années de relative résurgence de la gauche politique aux États-Unis, qui ont nourri les discussions au sein du séminaire “Du Socialisme en Amérique” depuis presque 5 ans, ce colloque propose de porter un regard nouveau sur les multiples modalités dans lesquelles les organisations, les mouvements, les militant·es, les intellectuel·les se réclamant de la gauche (socialisme, communisme, anarchisme…) ou de mouvements que l’on considère aujourd’hui comme la généalogie de la gauche (abolitionnisme, populisme…), ont entretenu depuis le 19^e siècle, et à toutes les époques de l’histoire du pays, des rapports avec la politique institutionnelle, électorale, et partisane.
 

Programme

Jeudi 4 décembre 2025

• 9:30 am: Welcome and coffee

• 10:00-10:15 am: Opening remarks by the organizing committee

• 10:15-10:45 am: Introduction. “Studying the US Left from France”.
Chair: Marie Plassart (Université Lyon 2/Triangle)

With Darius Devos (Université de Lausanne, EHESS /CENA), Marie Rabecq (Université Lyon 2, Triangle)

• 10:45-12:15 am: Panel 1, The US Left from a Transnational Perspective
Chair: Marie Menard (Université Paris Est-Créteil/IMAGER)

- Mikael Lyngaas (University of Oslo), “Scandinavian Socialists In the United States: Tracing the Scattered History of Scandinavian-American Socialism, 1876-1924.”
- Flavia Canestrini (European University Institute), “U.S. Grassroots Activism and Financial Markets in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1977-1987.”
- Nicole Colaianni (Ruprecht-Karls University), “American Sandinistas – American Communists? Exploring the Ideological Identity of American Volunteers in the Nicaraguan Revolution, 1979-1990.”

• 12:15-2:00 pm: Lunch break

• 2:00-3:30 pm: Panel 2, Mobilization Sites at the Grassroots Level
Chair: Kalilou Barry (Université Paris Est-Créteil/Imager)

- Marie Plassart (Université Louis Lumière Lyon 2/Triangle), “Politics within the Family on the Eve of Women’s Voting Rights: Socialist Women in a Rural Voting Precinct of Oklahoma.”
- Bradley Smith (Université Paris Nanterre/CREA), “Municipal Pathways to Systemic Change: Insights from Chicago’s Community Wealth Building Initiative.”
- Elodie Edwards-Grossi (Université Dauphine-PSL/IRISSO/Institut Universitaire de France), “When Political Leaders, Community Organizers and Volunteers Align against Petrotoxicity: The Case of the Richmond Progressive Alliance.”

• 3:30-4:00 pm: Coffee break

• 4:00-5:00 pm: Panel 3, “The Left, Education and the Press”
Chair: Jeanne Boiteux (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3/EMMA)

- Charlotte Brivio (Sorbonne Université), “A Grassroots Movement in the Making: The Expansive World of Print in Feminist Advocacy for Women’s Right to Vote in the United States from 1868 to 1876.”
- Steve Fraser (labor historian, via zoom), “Schools of Enlightenment and Revolution: A Look at Radical Education in American History.”

• 5:00-5:15 pm: Break

• 5:15-6:15 pm: Roundtable “Archiving and Researching the Left.”
Chair: Hélène Quanquin (Université de Lille/CECILLE, Institut Universitaire de France)

With Audrey Célestine (New York University, via Zoom), Julie Herrada (Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan), Ambre Ivol (Nantes Université/CRINI)

• 7:30 pm: Conference dinner for participants.

Vendredi 5 décembre 2025

• 9-9:30 am: Welcome and coffee

• 9:30-11:15 am: Panel 4, “Labor, Politics and Race”
Chair: Grégory Bekhtari (Université Paris Nanterre/CREA)

- Anaïs Lefèvre (Sorbonne Université), “Prisons, Labor Unions, and the Segmentation of the Working-Class in Mid-Twentieth Century United States.”
- Max Krochmal (University of New Orleans), Multiracial Labor and Civil Rights Coalition-Building in the U.S. South, Past and Present.”
- Anissa Khamkam (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/CAS), “Let’s Get the Slave Masters Out of Government!!”: Black Workers for Justice, Labor Organizing and Electoral Politics in the Black Freedom Movement. 1982-2010s.”
- Richard Wells (State University of New York), “Modern Rebels Need Not be Romantic Heroes”: The Political Ambiguity of US Labor.”

• 11:15-11:30 am: Coffee break

• 11:30-1:15 am: Panel 5, “From Social Movements to Political Organizations”
Chair: Ivan Bruneau (Université Lyon 2/Triangle)

- Olivier Mahéo (Institut d’histoire du temps présent), “Du Freedom Now Party au Lowndes County Freedom Party. Tentatives d’un parti africain-américain autonome.”
- Hugo Bouvard (Université Paris Cité/ECHELLES), “Nouvelle Gauche, mouvement de libération gay, et mobilisations électorales : analyse croisée de deux tentatives d’investissement de l’arène politique au début des années 1970.”
- Alisen Boley (Nantes Université/Triangle), “Constructing antagonisms: the tactical repertoires of Democratic Socialists of America 2016-2025.”
- Clara Sebastiani (Université Paris Cité/ECHELLES), “Prefigurative Politics, grassroots fundraising and the struggle for political representation in the re-emerging U.S. left.”

• 1:15-2:30 pm: Lunch break

• 2:30-4:15 pm: Panel 6, “Revolution and Counter Revolution”
Chair: Alice Béja (Sciences Po Lille/Ceraps)

- Jean-Louis Marin Lamellet (Université Savoie Mont Blanc), “L’étrange carrière (transatlantique) du Populisme. Comment faire de la politique à gauche, puis comment l’oublier et la dévoyer : étude de cas.”
- Van Gosse (Franklin and Marshall College), “Asking the Wrong Question about the U.S. Left.”
- Dolores Janiewski (Victoria University), “Socialism’s Nemeses: Reactionary Americanism, Red Scares, and Counter-Revolution.”
- Constantin J. Berlin (Goethe University Frankfurt), “The Socialist Workers Party’s Vision of a Combined Revolution for Socialism and Black Liberation.”

• 4:15-4:30 pm: Coffee break

• 4:30-5:30 pm: Roundtable, “Academia and Activism.”
Chair: Mathieu Bonzom (Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne/CESSP)

With Susan Kang (CUNY), Marsha Neimeijer (labor educator, board member of Labor Notes, via zoom), Annelise Orleck (Dartmouth University)

 

Organisation

• Kalilou Barry, Université Paris-Est Créteil, IMAGER
• Alice Béja, Sciences Po Lille/Ceraps
• Grégory Bekhtari, Université Paris Nanterre/CREA
• Jeanne Boiteux, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3/EMMA
• Mathieu Bonzom, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne/CESSP
• Marie Menard, Université Paris-Est Créteil, IMAGER
• Marie Plassart, Université Lyon 2/Triangle
• Hélène Quanquin, Université de Lille/CECILLE, IUF