About BIGD Masterclass series
The BIGD Masterclass Series is an intellectual platform that connects senior researchers and distinguished fellows together with emerging scholars to bridge the gap between classical scholarship and today’s complex social, political, and economic challenges. Through a curated series of sessions, participants will engage with foundational theories, seminal thinkers, and influential academic works across the social sciences while examining how these ideas continue to shape contemporary debates, policies, and development challenges. Designed for young and aspiring researchers, the programme seeks to cultivate a new generation of scholars who are intellectually curious, theoretically grounded, and equipped to produce rigorous, policy-relevant research.
We hosted the first session in our Masterclass series on June 4. The session was led by Dr. Mirza M Hassan (Adviser and Senior Research Fellow, Governance and Politics, BIGD).
About Dr. Mirza M. Hassan’s Masterclass
Karl Marx’s thinking had three sources: German philosophy, British political economy, and French socialism. This observation by Vladimir Lenin enjoyed full consensus among intellectuals and activists for decades. But recent archival findings indicate that Marx’s thinking was also influenced by the political theory of Republicanism, which was popular during the 19th century in continental Europe. Based on this, he fashioned his own political theory of radical Republicanism.
Dr. Mirza M Hassan’s presentation focused on the development of this theory of Marx, which essentially influenced his notion of democracy, state-society relations, and politics. He also elaborated on the implications of Marx’s radical Republican political thinking for conceptualizing politics and governance of our time.
