Heiko Feldner

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

CURRENT PROJECTS -- MAIN PUBLICATIONS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS – MISCELLANY

I am currently working on a graphic novel with Cardiff visual artist Ute Feldner, which traces the metamorphoses of modernism as a belief system from the outgoing 17th century to our present age of transhuman intelligence and biospheric destruction. The book aims to sight elements of a new utopian realism, understood as an inherent antidote, which neither pathologises the libidinal allure of this belief system nor underestimates the annihilating force-field that gave rise to it — a force-field known by its deceptively innocuous name of modernity.

As a joint general editor of Bloomsbury’s Writing History series on historiography and historical theory, the leading one of its kind in the Anglophone world, I am currently co-preparing the fourth edition of its flagship volume, Writing History: Theory and Practice. First published in 2003 with Stefan Berger and Kevin Passmore, its range of topics has since been steadily expanded, and the new edition will be no exception. To learn more about this book series and its editorial team, click here. Enquiries and book proposals for new volumes are very welcome.

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

• 批判理论与当代资本主义危机, co-authored with Fabio Vighi, trans. Xu Jiaona and Huang Man, Shanghai: Orient Publishing, 2024.
• Writing History: Theory and Practice, third revised and extended edition, edited with Stefan Berger and Kevin Passmore, London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020.
• States of Crisis and Post-Capitalist Scenarios, edited with Slavoj Žižek and Fabio Vighi, Farnham: Ashgate 2014 / London and New York: Routledge 2020.
• Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism, co-authored with Fabio Vighi, London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.
• The Lost Decade: The 1950s in European History, Politics, Society and Culture, edited with Claire Gorrara and Kevin Passmore, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.
• Žižek Beyond Foucault, co-authored with Fabio Vighi, London and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
• Did Somebody Say Ideology? On Slavoj Žižek and Consequences, edited with Fabio Vighi, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.
• Das Erfahrnis der Ordnung, with illustrations by Ute Feldner, Frankfurt on Main, 1999.

SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• ‘Cosmic Optimism or the Poetics of Extinction: Ten Reflections on Biodiversity in the Modern World’, paper at conference of International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 21-24 September 2024
• ‘New Utopian Realism’, interview with Wang Jie, editor of Marxist Aesthetics journal, Beijing, 22 September 2024 (forthcoming in 2025)
• The German Federal Elections of 26th September 2021, live interview on TRT World News, 27 September 2021
• The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and its classification as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence service, live interview on TRT World News, 3 March 2021
• ‘The End of Sociodicy? From the War Paradigm to Tianxia’, paper at Zhejiang Social Sciences Annual Conference, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 18-20 December 2020 (online)
• ‘What is the Historical Meaning of 1989?’, paper at symposium The Meaning of 1989 and the (Dis)Appearance of the German Democratic Republic, Cardiff, 29 November 2019
• The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the question of German unity today, live interview on TRT World News, 9 November 2019
• ‘Sublime Objects of Ideology and Critical Theory Today’, research talk and interview at Xiamen University, School of Marxism, Xiamen, 19 July 2019
• ‘The Innovation Paradox of Digital Capitalism’, public lecture, Xiamen University, School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen, 17 July 2019
• ‘Post-Digital Capitalism? Labour and Work in the 21st Century’, paper at Future of Work in the Post-Digital Age conference of Artes Liberales Institute, University of Warsaw, 27-28 May 2019
• ‘The Idea of Communism? From Homo Economicus to Homo Socialis’, keynote at The Idea of Communism and its Representation in Modern Art conference, Yan’an University, Yan'an, 4-5 December 2018
• ‘What Does God Do When He is Dead?’, keynote at symposium of Center for Contemporary Marxist Aesthetics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 2 December 2018
• ‘The Devil Take the Hindmost: Why we should like to read Karl Marx today’, public lecture at School of Modern Languages World Talk Lecture Series, Cardiff University, 1 November 2018
• ‘Digital Automation and the Valorisation of Cultural Creativity’, paper at 15th Russian-Chinese Sociology Conference, Cultural Economy and the Economization of Culture, St. Petersburg State University, 12-13 October 2018
• ‘Marx and Global Economic Crisis’, public talk at Marx200 festival of the Cardiff Socialist Forum, Cardiff, 23 June 2018

For a full list of my publications and speaking engagements click here.

MISCELLANY

I am a reviewer for public research funders, such as the American Council of Learned Societies and the Guggenheim Foundation, and a range of publishers and journals, such as Routledge and the Journal for Modern European History.

Enquiries for peer reviews and research reports are most welcome.

Teaching

Modules and topics routinely taught (2000-2024):

• Introductions to German history, politics and culture
• The German idea of history
• From Imperial to Weimar Germany
• National Socialism and power
• Germany between capitalism and communism
• 1968: West Germany in context
• The historical meaning of 1989
• German dissertation and contemporary German affairs
• Critical engagement in the humanities and social sciences
• Discourse analysis and ideology critique as research methods
• Political theory and political philosophy
• Critiques of modernity and globalisation
• Translation and adaptation (history and film)

PhD students, please see the Supervision tab.

Biography

I joined Cardiff University as a lecturer in 2000, coming from the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, where I was a research fellow at the Marx-Engels Centre MEGA and a lecturer in the departments of history and political economy.

In the Cardiff School of Modern Languages and its predecessors, I have acted in various roles, such as head of teaching and learning, director of German studies, line manager for the French and Hispanic departments, and co-director of the Centre for Ideology Critique and Žižek Studies. In November 2024, I was awarded emeritus status. 

As a supporter of the UK's University and College Union, I advocate for the values of free education, professional autonomy and collegial self-governance.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, London.

Supervisions

I have supervised a number of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the areas of critical theory, ideology critique, political economy, contemporary politics and modern European history, and have acted as external examiner at other universities in the UK. I am currently supervising two PhD theses and welcome enquiries about doctoral and postdoc research on modern historiography, contemporary ideologies (especially green capitalism, effective accelerationism and AI), the history and concept of capitalism, and the relevance of the works of Marx (crisis theory), Nietzsche (modern nihilism), Foucault (biopolitics) and Žižek (ideology critique).