RPC Lecture Series: Dr Aurangzeb Syed on "The new system of state power in Pakistan"

Research and Publication Centre (RPC) is holding a lecture by Dr Aurangzeb Syed visiting from the US on "The new system of state power in Pakistan" at RPC, 2nd floor, 65 Main Boulevard Gulberg, Lahore on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 3:00 pm. 

Dr Aurangzeb Syed is Professor Emeritus Northern Michigan University. He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Punjab University (Thesis: Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investments in Pakistan), a Master’s degree in American Studies (Thesis: Socio-economic Transformations during British Colonialism in Pre-Pakistan areas) from the University of Buffalo, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Virginia Tech (Dissertation: Political Economy of Pakistan’s Energy Policy). He began his teaching career at the Punjab University in 1978 and has taught at various Universities in the US: Metropolitan State University, Denver; Virginia Tech; and finally Northern Michigan University.

Aurangzeb was a political activist and participated in the socialist student movement as well as the Workers' movement in Lahore during the early to mid-1970s. He went abroad in 1975 for studies, first to Norway and then to the US where he continued his activism along with educational programmes.  In Norway, he participated in the activities of the foreign workers branch of the Workers Communist Party of Norway (erstwhile AKP). He was also active with the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) branch in Oslo. At the University of Buffalo, he helped organise the Third World Students Association, which promoted an anti-imperialist agenda and information.

Throughout his academic career, he consistently applied the Marxist political-economic paradigm to the subject matter of the courses taught in areas such as international politics, politics in developing countries, political economy, US politics, US Foreign Policy, etc. Within the post-war Marxist tradition, he especially appreciates the works of Nicos Poulantzas in the field of political analysis, Capital Logic school (Michael Heinrich) in the analytical approach to Capitalism, and Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism in dialectical materialist philosophy of social sciences.

For your urge to read something interesting and exciting, he recommends the recent (2015) political biography of Lenin by Tamas Krausz: Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography (Monthly Review Press, NY); Michael Heinrich’s biographical work Marx and the Birth of Modern Society (2018), a multi-volume project of which only the first volume has been published so far, is very interesting in bringing to light the formation of Marx’s ideas during the years of his early youth.

All friends are welcome. Tea will be served after the lecture and audience question-answer session.

Rashed Rahman

Editor, Pakistan Monthly Review (PMR) (link: pakistanmonthlyreview.com)

Director, Research and Publication Centre (RPC) (on Facebook)