William Callison

Academic Appointments

Harvard University

Lecturer in Social Studies

Uppsala University

Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Geography

Institute for Advanced Study

Member in the School of Social Science

Lafayette College

Visiting Assistant Professor of Government and Law

Education

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley (2019)

Political Science, Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory

M.A. University of California, Berkeley (2013)

Political Science

M.A. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2011)

Philosophie

B.A. University of Virginia (2009)

Political and Social Thought, with high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa

Visiting Positions

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Summer 2019)

IES Fellow & Visiting Researcher

University of Vienna (Spring 2019)

Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Research Fellow

Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main. & Institut für Sozialforschung (2015-16)

DAAD Graduate Scholar & Visiting Fellow

Columbia University (Spring 2014)

Graduate Exchange Scholar

Publications

Edited Books and Journals

Mutant Neoliberalism: Market Rule and Political Rupture, ed. with Zachary Manfredi (New York: Fordham University Press, 2020).

Spanish translation: Neoliberalismo mutante: Gobierno del mercado y ruptura política (Madrid: Lengua de Trapo, 2023).

“Europe at a Crossroads,” Near Futures Online, ed. with Michel Feher, Milad Odabaei and Aurélie Windels, Issue 1 (March 2016).

“Rethinking Sovereignty and Capitalism” (ed. Special Issue) in Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 23.1 Fall/Winter 2014.

Reviews of Mutant Neoliberalism: Market Rule and Political Rupture

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Corinne Blalock, William Davies, Verónica Gago, and David Singh Grewal in LPE Blog

Jessica Whyte in Perspectives on Politics

Michael Behrent in Tocqueville21

Johannes Lenhard in American Ethnologist

Alpar Lošonc in Panoeconomicus

Xia Chuanwei in The New Lens

Articles and Book Chapters

“A Climate Fit for Capitalism: Ordoliberalism’s Political Ecology and German Environmental Politics" (with Tatjana Söding), Environmental Politics; https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2024.2317108

"The Right’s Moral High Ground: Turkey, Spain and the United States” (with Asli Igsiz and Biko Koenig) in The Multiracial Right, edited by Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes (NYU Press, forthcoming 2024).

“Extinguishing the Flames: A Call for Future Research and Action on Far-Right Ecologies” (with The Zetkin Collective) in Irma Allen, Kristoffer Ekberg, Ståle Holgersen, Andreas Malm (eds.) Fanning the flames: Political Ecologies of the Far Right (Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2024 ).

“Postwachstum von rechts und die Gefahr des Ökofaschismus” (with Tatjana Söding), Ökologisches Wirtschaften, Ausgabe 01 (2023); https://doi.org/10.14512/OEWO380113

“The Politics of Rationality in Early Neoliberalism: Max Weber, Ludwig von Mises, and the Socialist Calculation Debate,” Journal of the History of Ideas (April 2022): 269–291.

“Ordoliberal Theory in Historical Context,” in Oxford Handbook of Ordoliberalism, eds. Thomas Biebricher, Werner Bonefeld, and Peter Nedergaard (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

"Introduction: Theorizing Mutant Neoliberalism" (with Zachary Manfredi) in Mutant Neoliberalism: Market Rule and Political Rupture, Callison and Manfredi, eds. (Fordham University Press, 2020).

“Ordoliberalism’s Trans-Atlantic (Un)Intelligibility: From Friedman and Eucken to Geithner and Schäuble” in Ordoliberalism, Law and the Rule of Economics, edited by Josef Hien and Christian Joerges (Bloomsbury & Hart Publishing, 2018): pp. 49-70.

“Subjectivity,” A Companion to Critical and Cultural Theory, edited by Imre Szeman, Sarah Blacker and Justin Sully (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017): pp. 173-190.

"Sovereign Anxieties and Neoliberal Transformations: An Introduction,” Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 23.1 (Fall/Winter 2014): pp. 3-34.

Book Reviews

Review of Neil Vallelly, Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness (Goldsmiths Press, 2021) in Theory & Event (Fall 2022).

"The Non-Crisis of Precarity Capitalism?" Review Symposium on Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis Or Utopia by Albena Azmanova, in Critical Horizons A Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory (August 2022).

Review of Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism in Perspectives on Politics (Winter 2021).

Review of Thomas Biebricher, The Political Theory of Neoliberalism in Contemporary Political Theory (February 2020).

Public Writing

"Aufstieg rechter Unternehmer Galionsfigur des Tech-Faschismus" (with Tatjana Söding) in taz Wochenzeitung (20.1.2025). [Link]

"Digitaler Faschismus: Elon Musk und AfD-Chefin Weidel" (withTatjana Söding), Neues Deutschland (Jan 9, 2025). [Link]

“The Great Driving Right Show" (with the Zetkin Collective), Salvage Magazine, #14 (Spring/Summer 2024).

"AfD: Kulturkampf mit jungen Rechten" (with Tatjana Söding), Zeit Online (August, 2024).

“Leugnen und verzerren: Die Klimakrise als Treibstoff der AfD” (with Tatjana Söding), Zeitschrift Luxemburg (Dezember 2023).

Republished: "Zwischen Klimaleugnung und Ökofaschismus: Wie es der AfD gelingt, in der Klimafrage zu punkten", SoZ (04/2024).

"Milei's Chainsaw," Sidecar (New Left Review), October 5, 2023.

Spanish translation: "La motosierra de Milei," El Salto, Oct 20, 2023

Spanish translation (abridged): "El anarcoautoritarismo de Javier Milei," Latinoamérica 21, Oct 15, 2023. Republished in El Confidencial, Montevideo Portal, La Revista, El Nacional

"New Preface to White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism” (with Tatjana Söding), Verso Blog (October 2022).

Spanish translation forthcoming with Capitán Swing (2023)

"Coronapolitics from the Reichstag to the Capitol" (with Quinn Slobodian), Boston Review (January 2021).

In German: "Querdenker: Der Aufstand des Mittelstands," Zeit Online (April 3, 2021).

In Spanish: "El auge del ‘diagonalismo,’" Política Exterior (Mayo/Junio 2021).

In Danish (interview): Kåre Holm Thomsen, "Populismens efterfølger" Weekendavisen (Feb 23, 2021).

In Dutch (interview): Seije Slager, "De nieuwe protestbeweging: Het wantrouwen tegen de macht wordt een politiek verdienmodel" Trouw (Feb 3, 2021).

In Croatian (coverage): "Nakon populizma – dijagonalizam?"

"A Tale of Two Ordos: German Nationalism in Brown and Red" (with Quinn Slobodian), ROAR Magazine (Summer 2020).

"Dead Again? Mutant Neoliberalism and Crisis Reinvention" (with Zachary Manfredi), LPE Blog (April 2020).

"Pop-Up Populism: The Failure of Left-Wing Nationalism in Germany" (with Quinn Slobodian), Dissent (Summer 2019).

In French: “Rideau sur un coup de théâtre populiste de la gauche allemande” in AOC: Analyse, Opinion, Critique (Sept. 3, 2019).

“Movements of Counter-Speculation: A Conversation with Michel Feher,” interviewed by William Callison, Los Angeles Review of Books (July 12, 2019).

"S’émanciper de l’émancipation: Entretien avec Wendy Brown," interviewed by William Callison and Michel Feher, Mouvements, Issue 97, No. 1 (2019).

Interview with Thomas Biebricher, “Return or Revival: The Ordoliberal Legacy” in Near Futures Online, “Europe at a Crossroads,” Issue 1 (March 2016).

In French: “Résurgence ou renaissance: l’héritage ordoliberal,” Vacarme 80 (Été 2017).

Interview with Sonja Buckel, “Welcome Management: Making Sense of the ‘Summer of Migration’” in Near Futures Online, “Europe at a Crossroads,” Issue 1 (March 2016).

In French: “L’hospitalité néolibérale: une lecture de l’été des migrations,” Vacarme 76 (Été 2016).

Interview with Claus Offe, “The Fate of an Impasse: Europe, Year 2015” (interviewed by William Callison, Jonathan Klein and Johann Szews), Near Futures Online, “Europe at a Crossroads,” Issue 1 (March 2016).

Interviews Given

"Mid-Ohio Valley group blends religion, politics to affect policy in Ohio and West Virginia," Athens County Independent (Feb 27, 2025). [Link]

"Latinos for Trump and the Multi-Racial Right" (Daniel Martinez HoSang and Isabel Peñarnda Currie), Sur Urbano Podcast (Jan 29, 2025) [Link]

"Manipulative Botschaften im Live-Talk: die Strategie hinter dem Plausch von Weidel und Musk", Watson.de (Jan 10, 2025) [Link].

“'Fossil fascism': How some on the right use climate change as an excuse to demonize migrants," Salon (Dec 3, 2024) [Link]

Newspaper interview in Polish, by Patryk Strzałkowski, “Politolog z Harvardu o "niebezpiecznych" skutkach wygranej Trumpa. Dotyczą także Europy” in Gazeta.pl (08.11.2024) [Link]

Podcast interview, “Diagonalism,” Conspirituality Podcast (October 12, 2023).

Podcast interview, “Automobiles and Political Struggles,” Radio Marc Bloch, hosted by the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin (August 2023). [Link]

Blog interview, “William Callison on Max Weber, Ludwig von Mises and State Economic Planning,” JHI Blog (July 2022).

Radio interview in German, Tassilo Hummel, “Messengerdienst Telegram: Darknet für die Hosentasche,” Deutschlandfunk Kultur (August 24 2021).

Radio interview in German, Tassilo Hummel und Jan Karon, “Telegram – Der Messengerdienst als rechtsfreier Raum,” SWR2 Wissen (June 2021). [Link]

Newspaper interview in Danish (with Quinn Slobodian), Kåre Holm Thomsen, “Populismens efterfølger,” Weekendavisen (Feb 23, 2021).

Newspaper interview in Dutch (with Quinn Slobodian), Seije Slager, “De nieuwe protestbeweging: Het wantrouwen tegen de macht wordt een politiek verdienmodel,” Trouw (Feb 3, 2021).

Radio and Podcast interview (with Quinn Slobodian), “Crisis Diagonalism,” This is Hell! and WNUR 89.3FM Chicago (January 2021).

Magazine interview on Mutant Neoliberalism (translated into Portuguese), neofeed.com.br (February 2020).

Podcast interview on Mutant Neoliberalism (with Zachary Manfredi), New Books in Critical Theory / New Books in Intellectual History, New Books Network (January 2020).

Translations

Verónica Gago, “Mutant Neoliberalism, Originary Violence and Feminist Revolts in Latin America,” Mutant Neoliberalism Symposium, LPE Blog (April 2020).

Interviews with Sonja Buckel and Claus Offe (see above).

Martin Saar, “Spinoza and the Political Imaginary,” Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 23.2 Spring/Summer 2015: pp. 115-133.

Joseph Vogl, “The Real and the All-Too-Human,” Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy, Issue Number 22, 2015: pp. 16-21.

Joseph Vogl, “The Sovereignty Effect: Markets and Power in the Economic Regime,” Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 23.1 Fall/Winter 2014: 125-155.

View Full CV