Confirmed keynote speakers:

Professor Gregory Claeys
(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Gregory Claeys is Professor of History of Political Thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. His main research interests are the history of radicalism and socialism in 19th century Britain, Utopianism 1700-2001, Social Darwinism and Eugenics, and British intellectual history from 1750 to the present. His publications include: Utopias of the British Enlightenment (1994); Modern British Utopias c. 1700-1850 (1997); (co-editor, with Lyman Tower Sargent) The Utopia Reader (1999); Restoration and Augustan British Utopias (2000); Late Victorian Utopias (2008).

Professor Krishan Kumar
(University of Virginia)

Krishan Kumar is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Kent. Among many other activities, he is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Classical Sociology and the European Journal of Social Theory, and also member of the International Editorial Board of the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. He has authored a long list of books, essays and reviews and he has accumulated many awards and distinctions. His publications include: Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times (1987); Utopianism (1991); Utopias and the Millennium (1993); The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism (2006).

Professor Neelakanta Radhakrishnan
(Chairman of the Indian Council for Gandhian Studies)

Neelakanta Radhakrishnan is one of the most eloquent and expressive Gandhian scholars and activists of our times. During the past 45 years of his active public life, in addition to being a well-known member of the Faculty of English in Gandhigram University, Tamil Nadu, India, he has been ardently involved in a number of events of national and international relevance. Ever since joining Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in 1989, he has fully devoted his attention to the propagation of Gandhian ideals for peace and international understanding. He is the first Gandhian scholar to design serious and imaginative steps to take Gandhi to the Universities and to inspire the Indian youth to go to villages and bring about a qualitative change in village life. He has authored and edited around fifty books.

Professor Jacinto Rodrigues
(University of Porto)

Jacinto Rodrigues is a multifaceted man. An exile during the Portuguese fascist regime, he chose France as his main host country. He taught at the University of Picardie, in Amiens, and at the School of Architecture, in Rennes. In the meantime, he graduated in Sociology and took a Master’s degree in Urban Planning. When he returned to Portugal, he was invited to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts. He is now a Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto and he holds a PhD in Art History. He recently published The Solar Conspiracy of Father Himalaya (A Conspiração Solar do Padre Himalaya), a book on the life and work of a visionary Portuguese scientist.