Third Issue of NEW BENJAMIN STUDIES (Brill | Fink Publishing House)
“Walter Benjamin in Times of Crisis”
Our present is marked by political and social crises, from rising authoritarian populism and the
general erosion of democratic and legal institutions, to escalations of armed conflicts, to ecological catastrophes and accelerating capitalism. This forces millions into involuntary migration, often resulting in marginalisation and deportations. Against the backdrop of these events and challenges, Walter Benjamin’s philosophy seems, once again, more relevant than ever.
Throughout his entire oeuvre, Benjamin engages with themes that crystallise around the concepts and conceptions of progress and decay, justice and violence, crisis and catastrophe, and not least, revolution and figures of the messianic. His readings of these phenomena emerge from a historical context characterised by political upheaval, inflation, fascism, and war, that has a striking similarity to the dialectics of today’s world. Especially his incisive critique of modernity as well as his reflections on history and politics offer a powerful lens for interrogating the ruptures and contradictions of our times of crisis.
For the third issue of the yearbook NEW BENJAMIN STUDIES, “Walter Benjamin in Times of
Crisis”, we invite contributions of a maximum of 8,000 words that discuss Benjamin’s thought
figures in light of the global developments and grievances, the struggles they bring about, as well as the possibilities they open for resistance and change. We strongly encourage submissions from interdisciplinary perspectives and non-Western intellectual and cultural contexts.
Please submit articles for consideration to new.benjamin.studies[at]gmail.com by January 31, 2026. All submissions will undergo blind peer review, and authors are requested to adhere to the style sheet provided on the NEW BENJAMIN STUDIES website.
Editorial Collective | Ilit Ferber (Tel Aviv), Stefano Marchesoni (Milano), Alexandra Richter
(Berlin/Rouen), Nassima Sahraoui (Frankfurt), Sebastian Truskolaski (Manchester)
The editorial collective of NBS welcomes Anna Migliorini (Florence) and Ana María Miranda Mora (Utrecht) as guest editors for the third issue.
NEW BENJAMIN STUDIES is a peer-reviewed yearbook dedicated to current research into the thought and writing of Walter Benjamin. Publishing articles by both emerging and established scholars, the yearbook aims to foster novel approaches to the work of the German writer. Through annual thematic issues, New Benjamin Studies provides a unique platform for exchange among scholars from various parts of the world, offering an insight into the rich variety of present-day readings of Benjamin’s oeuvre. New Benjamin Studies welcomes innovative contributions from all fields of the humanities and beyond.
Advisory Board | Antonia Birnbaum (Paris/Vienna), Howard Caygill (London), Rebecca Comay (Toronto), Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky (Bochum), Howard Eiland (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Peter Fenves (Evanston), Eli Friedlander (Tel-Aviv), Jeanne-Marie Gagnebin (São Paulo), Gabriele Guerra (Rome), Michael Jennings (Princeton), Gertrud Koch (Berlin), Esther Leslie (London), Vivian Liska (Antwerp), Noëleen Murray (Pretoria), Pablo Oyarzún Robles (Santiago de Chile), Andrea Pinotti (Milan), Gérard Raulet (Paris), Thomas Regehly (Offenbach), Gérhard Richter (Providence), Tamara Tagliacozzo (Rome), Sigrid Weigel (Berlin), Irving Wohlfarth (Bremen/Paris)