Lars Cornelissen

Blank screen with the line ‘footage not found’

Thanks Claudia!

A picture of eight copies of Neoliberalism and Race, sat on a wooden side table next to a plant

Author’s copies of my book have arrived! It looks even better IRL!

Neoliberalism and Race will be coming out mid-October with @stanfordpress.bsky.social

The Adam Smith Institute on Race Explore the controversial history of the Adam Smith Institute's views on race, IQ, and intelligence in this revealing archival research from a groundbreaking neoliberal study.

Turns out the men who founded the Adam Smith Institute held some pretty controversial views on race, IQ, and segregation.

Read my latest blog post here:

keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-adam-s...

Very much looking forward to this!

Financing the border: racial capitalism, migration, and the practices of the Canadian state Canada is often recognised as one of the most progressive nations in the world when it comes to the acceptance of refugees and multiculturalism as national policy. However, the longer history of bo...

New article out with Rachel Phillips in @ripejournal.bsky.social: 'Financing the Border', Part of a special issue on Raced Finance guest edited by @iliasalami.bsky.social, @vincentguermond.bsky.social and me

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Resisting Erasure Why has Palestine become a defining fault line of contemporary politics?Challenging mainstream narratives that reduce Palestine to ancient hatreds, humanitarian tragedy, or legal abstractions, Resisti...

Why is Palestine a defining fault line of 21st‑century politics? Resisting Erasure places Israeli settler‑colonialism within imperialism, race, and fossil capitalism—not just humanitarian / legal narratives. Officially out & available in paperback & ebook www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

Mankind Quarterly October-December 1961: Vol 2 Iss 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Here it is: archive.org/details/mank...

At no time in our history has the need for higher education been greater: at no time has the demand been more insistent, or the requirements more exacting. The scope and content of many aspects of scientific learning has more than doubled in the course of a generation; and with the growth of science a corresponding efficacy in the processes of general and humane education has become essential. The University of Edinburgh, conscious of the immensity and responsibility of its task, is painfully aware that its physical assets, in the shape of laboratories, classrooms, ancillary accommodation, and the necessary equipment, are inadequate and out of date. These things cost money. Though much will be provided from Government sources, the University itself will have to meet the cost of a substantial part of its building programme, which, over the next few years, will involve the expenditure of many millions of pounds. To this end it is making an Appeal to all its graduates and friends, and has aiready raised more than £363,000. Still more is required if our young men and women are to have the education they desire and deserve. All contributions will be most gratefully acknowledged, and full information on the University's needs and plans, with advice on methods of contributing, will gladly be sent on application to the Secretary to the University, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, 8

(2/3) ... For reasons I haven't been able to reconstruct, the first five or so volumes of the MQ sported on its back cover an advertisement from the University of Edinburgh asking alumni to donate money towards the upkeep of the uni's estate and facilities.

(1/3) Apropos of the University of Edinburgh's report on its historical relations to slavery, colonialism, and race science:

For the first years of its existence, The Mankind Quarterly was published and printed in Edinburgh, which is where its editor, the intellectual fraud Robert Gayre, lived...

The Neoliberals Read Slobodian So You Don’t Have to - #2

"Snowdon’s is a knee-jerk reflex calculated to protect the neoliberal project and some of its most precious philosophers from what he perceives to be a smear campaign."

keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/the-neolib...

Cat in bow tie looking smug

This is my cat. In other news, if you have a chronic illness or identify as disabled and are in the UK, I've just co-founded a new support group, AccessingArchives. Instagram: www.instagram.com/aarchivesnet.... You can sign up here: forms.gle/5o8m8Jy9ux4B...

Robbins on Race Notes from the Archive - #1

Wrote a post about Lionel Robbins and race.

After stumbling on a pair of surprisingly incendiary early pieces on race and population, I found that Robbins had a career-spanning interest in differential fertility rates.

keeping-up-with-the-neoliberals.beehiiv.com/p/robbins-on...

Or hires!

Yeah I saw; it's bleak!

The books I'm thinking of are:
(1) Woodley & Figueredo tinyurl.com/24h9f6j3
(2) Dutton & Charlton tinyurl.com/2z63wp78

Maybe this isn't too surprising given that Richard Lynn was one of the original signatories to the IEA's declaration of intent for an independent uni

I knew it was going to be the Uni of Buckingham even before I saw the full poster. Buckingham, that famous bastion of politically neutral science whose university press published two literal eugenics textbooks in the last 15 years

PS. I'd say that Eysenck wasn't so much 'accused' of eugenics as a card-carrying eugenicist - he'd been a fellow and even active officer of the Eugenics Society since the 40s!

Great writeup! I've been doing some research in the LSE archives over the past month that happens to speak to the Eysenck incident. Fascinating to see how university management and governors spoke internally about the issue; a real sign of things to come in decades to follow

‘Founder as Victim, Founder as God’: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and the two bodies of the entrepreneur Silicon Valley’s tech moguls have increasing political ambitions, as spectacularly illustrated by Peter Thiel’s and Elon Musk’s involvements in the US 2022 midterm elections and 2024 presidential e...

📢🔔 ICYMI - this at 1989 views in less than a month is By FAR our fastest moving article ‘Founder as Victim, Founder as God’: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and the two bodies of the entrepreneur - @cibled.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World Shanawdithit was a woman who bore witness to the death of her world in the early nineteenth century, creating the only first-hand account we have of the Beothuk people from the Island of Newfoundland....

I've accidentally wound up doing a mini-lecture tour of London this week & in case anyone is desperate to hear two very different perspectives on the history of Newfoundland, here they are. First, at Gresham (there are tickets left for the live stream) ... www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/sha...

A screenshot of the table of contents for the forthcoming book, Neoliberalism and Race. It says: Acknowledgements: ix Introduction: 1 One: Liberalism or Barbarism: 21 Two: A Listless and Dejected Mass: 51 Three: Born Empire Builders: 76 Four: Race Is History: 107 Five: A Wonderfully Secret Code: 143 Conclusion: 183

Table of contents:

Neoliberalism and Race | Stanford University Press Lars Cornelissen argues that the category of race constitutes an organizing principle of neoliberal ideology. Using the methods of intellectual history and drawing on insights from critical race studi...

Very exciting to see that my book has its own page on the SUP website now

Should be hitting shelves in October!

www.sup.org/books/theory...

I wrote a report with @cmmonwealth.bsky.social on the current corporate push to privatise outer space - one of the few remaining commons of humanity (dixit international law)

Congrats Carla! Good to see this out in the world

‘Founder as Victim, Founder as God’: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and the two bodies of the entrepreneur Silicon Valley’s tech moguls have increasing political ambitions, as spectacularly illustrated by Peter Thiel’s and Elon Musk’s involvements in the US 2022 midterm elections and 2024 presidential e...

Very happy to say that my article on Musk and Thiel's political theory of the founder (drawing on Lacan on the way) is out with @jcultecon.bsky.social! Strange to see it out there with all what happened in the last year, but it will hopefully make it a good read

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World Shanawdithit was a woman who bore witness to the death of her world in the early nineteenth century, creating the only first-hand account we have of the Beothuk people from the Island of Newfoundland....

I'll be speaking at @greshamcollege.bsky.social on 30 April about my new research; on a subject that is profoundly important to me and to the world (even if few have heard of this incredible woman and her people). Register to attend in person or online here: www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/sha...

New article with my dear friend @lcornelissen.bsky.social! We read through Louis Rougier's work and discussed his connections with the French far right.

The article is behind paywall sadly, so DM me or Lars if you don't have institutional access and need a free copy.

Thank you!

Abstract for the article, which reads: "This paper argues that a shared investment in racial hierarchy has historically formed a key point of convergence between neoliberal and far-right ideologies. To make this argument, the paper develops a close analysis of the career and works of Louis Rougier (1889-1982). Known principally as a prominent early free-market advocate who helped to organize the neoliberal movement in the interwar period, Rougier stands out from many other neoliberals by his lifelong connections to the French far right. The paper maps out these connections, focusing in particular on Rougier's links, first, to neo-fascist circles during and after the Second World War and, second, to the Nouvelle Droite as it emerged in the late 1960s. It then reconstructs Rougier's views on race, showing that he saw racial variables as a decisive factor in the historical ascendancy of Western civilization. Late in his life he took a keen interest in a body of racialist pseudo-science to support this view. The final section of the paper explores the ideological affinity between far-right and neoliberal ideology, arguing that Rougier's signally racialised conception of Western civilization was so closely aligned with both worldviews it was able to serve as a conceptual bridge. The paper concludes that this ideological affinity positions the far right as a more or less organic ally to neoliberalism."

The paper is paywalled, unfortunately. We can send a link for free copies to those without institutional access - just DM myself or Carla

The paper will be part of a special issue on neoliberalism and fascism, ed by Henry Maher, which promises to be excellent!

Finally, here's the abstract