Liberalism in Exile
ActiveDescription
Established in January 2026, Liberalism in Exile is a research group at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies that focuses on the history of liberalism and liberal thought in exile, in particular in the British and Anglophone context. London became a meeting point for numerous exiled German-speaking intellectuals, many of them with Jewish backgrounds, who sought to rethink the foundations of liberal democracy. Among them were sociologists like Karl Mannheim and Viola Klein, economists including Friedrich Hayek and Karl Polanyi, and writers and intellectuals such as Elias and Veza Canetti, H.G. Adler and Franz Baermann Steiner. Against the backdrop of English liberalism and the experience of Fascism on the Continent, they produced a wide range of political, sociological, literary and especially essayistic writing. The experience of exile often went hand in hand with a productive shift in perspective on the fate of liberal society as a whole, a question at the centre of the group’s discussions.
The group meets online on the last Thursday of each month, and two in-person workshops in Cologne and London are planned for 2026 and 2027, the Cologne workshop in association with the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies. Its participating institutions are the University of Cologne, the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, the Academic Working Group of the Leo Baeck Institute in Germany (WAG) and the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies, and it is listed among the WAG’s research groups. The project is sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Leo Baeck Institute, Germany.
Currently active
Yes
Offers funding
No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.
Founding year
2026
Contact details
London
WC1E 7HU
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Categorisation
Type
Tags
Parent infrastructure(s)
Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (ILCS)
The Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies (ILCS) supports research in the integrated study of languages, cultures, and societies. Its strengths lie primarily within the fields of French and … read more about Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (ILCS)
University Of London
Senate House
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HU
United Kingdom
University affiliation(s)
University of London
London
Additional Partnerships
University of Cologne; Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne; Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft des Leo Baeck Instituts (WAG), Germany
Last modified:
2026-10-09 14:51:43