About
Viren Murthy’s work probes the historical conditions for the possibility of philosophy and politics in the modern world, and in East Asia in particular. He is broadly interested in attempts by East Asian intellectuals to resist modernity through reviving premodern philosophies and religions such as Buddhism.
His recent monographs include The Politics of Time in China and Japan: Back to the Future (Routledge, 2022), which examines how Chinese and Japanese intellectuals mobilize traditional texts to imagine a world beyond global capitalism, and Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2023), which traces how intellectuals in China and Japan promoted Asian unity to resist Western domination.
His current project explores how East Asian intellectuals drew on G.W.F. Hegel to uncover logics in Chinese and Japanese history that culminate in a new world order inspired by their respective cultures. He is also engaged in projects on South Indian classical music and Tamil identity, and on Marxists in the North Atlantic who have drawn on Jewish Messianism to confront capitalist modernity.
- Ph.D., University of Chicago
- M.A., University of Hawaii at Manoa
- B.A., Lake Forest College
Books
- Murthy, Viren. The Politics of Time in China and Japan: Back to the Future. Routledge, 2022.
- Murthy, Viren. Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution. University of Chicago Press, 2023.
- Murthy, Viren (Co-editor), Fabian Schäfer (Co-editor), and Maz Ward (Co-editor). Confronting Capital and Empire: Rethinking Kyoto School Philosophy. Brill, 2017.
- Murthy, Viren (Co-editor), and Joyce C.H. Liu (Co-editor). East-Asian Marxisms and Their Trajectories. Routledge, 2017.
- Murthy, Viren (Co-editor), Andrew Sartori (Co-editor), and Prasenjit Duara (Co-editor). A Companion to Global Historical Thought. Wiley, 2014.
- Murthy, Viren. The Challenge of Linear Time: Nationhood and the Politics of History in East Asia. Brill, 2014.
- Murthy, Viren. The Political Philosophy of Zhang Taiyan: The Resistance of Consciousness. Brill, 2011.
Journal articles
- “Rescuing Hegel from Eurocentrism: Oriental Reconstructions of Hegel’s Orient,” forthcoming in Hegel Bulletin, Cambridge, 2024.
- “Doubt, Despair and the Conditions of Left-Hegelian Critical Theory,” Journal of Labor and Society, May 2023.
- “Rethinking Materialism and Asia: Miki Kiyoshi and Hiromatsu Wataru,” International Journal of Asian Studies, 2022, 1–17.
- “Beyond Particularity and Universality: Moishe Postone and the Possibilities of Jewish Marxism,” Jewish Social Studies, Feb. 2020, 127–167.
- “Conjuring Hope Out of Leftist Melancholy,” Journal of Labor and Society, vol. 21.2, 2018, 231–253.
Articles in edited volumes
- “Raga and the Problem of Ownership: Knowledge and Culture in Carnatic Music” (co-authored with Annapurna Mamidipudi, Dagmar Schäfer, et al.), in Ownership of Knowledge: Beyond Intellectual Property. MIT Press, 2023, 121–152.
- “Takeuchi Yoshimi and Deweyan Democracy in Postwar Japan,” in Confucianism and Deweyan Pragmatism. University of Hawaii Press, 2021, 157–190.
- “Takeuchi Yoshimi and the Problem of Tenkō” in Tenkō in Transwar Japan. Routledge, 2021, 65–84.
- “Rethinking Pan-Asianism through Zhang Taiyan: India as Method” in Beyond Pan-Asianism: Connecting India and China, 1911–1949. Oxford University Press, 2021, 94–128.
- July 2023, “Takeuchi, Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution,” Heidelberg University, Germany.
- July 2023, “Periodizing Chinese and Japanese Modernity via Hegelian Master Narratives,” University of Göttingen, Germany.
- July 2023, “Imagining Global Governance: Rethinking Chinese Tianxia Philosophy in Light of Marxism and Interwar Japan,” Freie Universität, Berlin.
- June 2023, “Takeuchi Pan-Asianismus und das Erbe der Chinesischen Revolution,” Hamburg University, Germany.
- June 2023, “Hegelian Master Narratives and East Asian Modernity,” Worldmaking Conference, Heidelberg University.
- January 2023, “Rethinking Chinese and Indian Nationalism,” Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
- January 2023, “The Politics of Time in China and Japan: Back to the Future” (Paraspar Lecture), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
- November 2022, “Wang Hui: Contemporary Pan-Asianist?” Political Theory Workshop, University of Pennsylvania.
- History 104 — Introduction to Japanese History (Syllabus 2024 PDF)
- History 201 — Postcolonialism and the Problem of Global Modernity (Syllabus 2020 PDF)
- History 228 — Historicizing Popular Culture in Asia (Syllabus 2012 PDF)
- History 228 — Pan-Asianism in History
- History 255 — East Asian Civilization (Syllabus 2020 PDF)
- History 283 — Globalization (Syllabus 2013 PDF)
- History 500 — Introduction to the Asian Intellectual History (Syllabus 2021 PDF)
- History 500 — Philosophies of History East and West (Syllabus 2024 PDF)
- History 600 — Critics of Modernity East and West
- History 680/690 — Thesis and Honor Thesis Colloquium (Syllabus 2020 PDF)
- August 2023 — Interview about China and India in Politics, Asia Institute for China and IOR Studies, with Professor Joseph Anthony. Watch on YouTube
- July 2021 — Podcast on “Carnatic Music and Social Hierarchies” with Annapurna Mamidipudi, on Interchange with Doug Storm. Listen on PRX
- July 2021 — Podcast on “Zhang Taiyan and pan-Asianism,” on Interchange with Doug Storm. Listen on PRX
- July 2021 — “Podcast on China, Japan and a New World Order” with Ash Milton, Palladium Magazine. Listen at Palladium