Dr Julia Ng

Staff details

Position Reader in Critical Theory and Co-Director of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought
Email j.ng (@gold.ac.uk)
Phone +44 (0)20 7078 5003
Dr Julia Ng

In AY 2023-24, Julia is on research leave, courtesy of a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.

Julia Ng is Reader in Critical Theory and founding Co-Director of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought. She specialises in the links between modern mathematics, political thought, and theories of history and language in the 20th century, particularly in the work of Walter Benjamin. She is the co-editor (with Peter Fenves) of the critical edition of Walter Benjamin's “Toward the Critique of Violence” and associated fragments (2021), which contains her new translation of the essay, as well as an edition of Werner Hamacher’s writings on Friedrich Hölderlin (2020), both published with Stanford University Press. She is also the co-editor of Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, and the Marburg School: Special Issue of the Modern Language Notes 127.3 (2012). Prior to joining Goldsmiths, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD, Comparative Literary Studies (emphasis: German Literature and Critical Thought), Northwestern University
  • Joint BA/MA, Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles
  • BA, Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles

Teaching and Supervision

Research interests

Julia has published widely on Benjamin's and Scholem's meta-mathematical engagements with neo-Kantianism, contemporaneous legal and political philosophy, and philosophy of history, beginning with a dossier of items recovered from the Scholem Archive and an accompanying article entitled "Kant's Theory of Experience After the War" that appeared in the special issue of MLN (127.3) she co-edited in 2012. She also contributes to the scholarship on modern Jewish political thought. Julia has written on Benjamin's critical altercations with Hermann Cohen, Leonard Nelson, and the French epistemologist and historian of science Émile Meyerson, as well as on Scholem's reception of Cantor and Bolzano, Scholem's significance for Agamben, and Benjamin's concept of justice in view of his philosophies of language and of thingly agency. A translator of Benjamin, Werner Hamacher and Friedrich Hölderlin, Julia's research is also concerned with philosophy's relation to the philological and with poetic modes of being, thinking, and acting.

Besides her study of Hölderlin's political-philosophical reception circa 1971, which served as the critical introduction to her translation of Hamacher's master's thesis Version of Meaning: A Study of Hölderlin's Late Lyric Poetry, she has written on Hölderlin's philosophy of nature and on synaesthesia in Sappho. She also contributes more broadly to literary and critical theory with work on Derrida, Agamben, Kant, Descartes, Shakespeare, Sterne, Kraus, Baudelaire, and figures of reversibility, undecidability, singularity, and the philosophical archive.

Funded by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, Julia is currently completing a book on Daoism and Capitalism based around Benjamin and Weber’s respective images of China ancient and modern.

Julia co-chairs the Walter Benjamin Research Network and serves on the boards of the series Walter Benjamin Studies for Bloomsbury Philosophy and Critical Theory for Inschibboleth edizioni.

Publications and research outputs

Edited Book

Ng, Julia and Fenves, Peter, eds. 2021. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia and Fenves, Peter, eds. 2020. Werner Hamacher. Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9781503611115

Edited Journal

Ng, Julia and Martel, James, eds. 2024. Singularity's -abilities: Special dossier on Samuel Weber, Modern Language Notes: Comparative Literature issue, . 0026-7910

Ng, Julia, ed. 2022. Special issue on 'Derrida's Geschlecht III', Paragraph, 45(3). 0264-8334

Ng, Julia and Mieszkowski, Jan, eds. 2021. Special Issue on "Reversibility", CR: The New Centennial Review, 21(1). 1532-687X

Ng, Julia, ed. 2020. Symposium on Daniel Heller-Roazen's "No One's Ways" (with Julie Orlemanski, Juliette Kennedy, Markus Hardtmann and Eleanor Kaufman), Syndicate Lit, . 2378-1769

Ng, Julia and Rochelle, Tobias, eds. 2012. Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, and the Marburg School, Modern Language Notes, 127(3). 0026-7910

Book Section

Ng, Julia. 2022. 無人之徑: 本雅明、無為和資本主義批判 [Chinese translation of No One’s Way: Benjamin, wu wei, and the critique of capitalism]. Trans. He Yuan. In: Samuel Weber; Sha Li and Yong Zhao, eds. The Travels of Critical Theory: Between Aesthetics and Society. Beijing: Peking University Press, pp. 192-206. ISBN 9787301330326

Ng, Julia and Benjamin, Walter. 2021. [Translation] Toward the Critique of Violence. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 39-61. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia. 2021. Afterword — Toward Another Critique of Violence. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 113-160. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia and Benjamin, Walter. 2021. Literature for a more fully developed critique of violence and philosophy of right [Ms 1858]. In: Peter Fenves and Julia Ng, eds. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 108-112. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia and Fenves, Peter. 2021. Note on the Translation of Benjamin’s Writings. In: Peter Fenves and Julia Ng, eds. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, vii-viii. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia and Fenves, Peter. 2021. Glossary. In: Peter Fenves and Julia Ng, eds. Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, by Walter Benjamin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 247-257. ISBN 9780804749527

Ng, Julia. 2020. Versing, Ending: Hölderlin in 1971. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Werner Hamacher. Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-18. ISBN 9781503611115

Ng, Julia and Hamacher, Werner. 2020. [Translation] Version of Meaning: A Study of Hölderlin's Late Lyric. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Werner Hamacher. Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 19-116. ISBN 9781503611115

Ng, Julia and Hölderlin, Friedrich. 2020. [Translation] The Only One. Third Version. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Werner Hamacher. Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 181-184. ISBN 9781503611115

Ng, Julia. 2020. Translator's Preface. In: Julia Ng and Peter Fenves, eds. Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, ix-xiv. ISBN 9781503608399

Ng, Julia. 2019. La matematicità di un’esperienza transitoria: a proposito di due espressioni del Frammento teologico-politico. In: Gabriele Guerra and Tamara Tagliacozzo, eds. Felicità e tramonto: Sul Frammento teologico-politico di Walter Benjamin. Macerata, Italy: Quodlibet, pp. 33-54. ISBN 9788822904317

Ng, Julia. 2017. Gershom Scholem. In: Adam Kotsko and Carlo Salzani, eds. Agamben's Philosophical Lineage. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474423649

Ng, Julia. 2016. Justicia (Gerechtigkeit). In: Esther Cohen, ed. Glosario Walter Benjamin: conceptos y figuras. Mexico: UNAM. ISBN 9786070283239

Ng, Julia. 2016. '+1'. Scholem e i paradossi dell'infinito. In: Tamara Tagliacozzo, ed. Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem e il linguaggio. Milan: Mimesis. ISBN 9788857537528

Ng, Julia. 2014. Agamben, Giorgio. In: Michael Kelly, ed. The [Oxford] Encyclopedia of Aesthetics 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ng, Julia. 2009. Descartes Instrument: Geometrischer Raum und die Verschmitztheit militärischer Architekturdarstellungen. In: Butis Butis, ed. Goofy History: Fehler Machen Geschichte. Böhlau-Verlag Gmbh. ISBN 978-3412204266

Ng, Julia. 2009. Translation: “Romantic Politics and Society,” by Ethel Matala de Mazza. Translated from the German by Julia Ng (with Ladislaus Loeb). In: Nicholas Saul, ed. The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge University Press, pp. 191-208. ISBN 9781139002554

Ng, Julia. 2006. The Museum, the Street, and the Virtual Landscape of Berlin. In: Christoph Lindner, ed. Urban Space and Cityscapes: Perspectives from Modern and Contemporary Culture. Routledge, pp. 137-154. ISBN 9780415366533

Article

Ng, Julia. 2024. Whistling Lillabullero. Modern Language Notes (Comparative Literature Issue), ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia and Martel, James. 2024. Samuel Weber at 80. Modern Language Notes (Comparative Literature Issue), ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia. 2023. The Action of Non-Action: Walter Benjamin, Wu Wei and the Nature of Capitalism. Theory, Culture & Society (Special Issue: Against Ontology: Chinese Thought and François Jullien), 40(4–5), pp. 219-238. ISSN 0263-2764

Ng, Julia and Waltham-Smith, Naomi. 2022. Tender Violence, Coercive Simplicity, Geschlecht III: An Introduction. Paragraph, 45(3), pp. 267-284. ISSN 0264-8334

Ng, Julia. 2022. Sapphic Sociability. diacritics (Special issue on 'Women in Theory', ed. Erin Graff Zivin), 49(2), pp. 25-32. ISSN 0300-7162

Ng, Julia. 2022. 无人之径:本雅明、无为与资本主义批判 [No One's Way: Benjamin, Wu Wei, and the Critique of Capitalism]. (Translated by Shu Xiang, He Yuan). Journal of Guangzhou University (Social Science Edition), 2022(4), pp. 146-160. ISSN 1000-5099

Ng, Julia. 2021. Cartesian Empiricism. Syndicate Lit, ISSN 2378-1769

Ng, Julia. 2021. Undecidability and Reversibility. CR: The New Centennial Review, 21(1), pp. 11-35. ISSN 1532-687X

Mieszkowski, Jan and Ng, Julia. 2021. Introduction: No Time for Linear Time. CR: The New Centennial Review, 21(1), pp. 1-10. ISSN 1532-687X

Ng, Julia. 2020. Introduction. Symposium on Daniel Heller-Roazen, No One's Ways. Syndicate Lit, ISSN 2378-1769

Ng, Julia. 2020. Theory on Theory. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 28(1), pp. 169-189. ISSN 1077-4254

Ng, Julia. 2019. Rechtsphilosophie after the War: A Commentary on §§4-6 of 'Zur Kritik der Gewalt'. Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory, 2(2), pp. 239-251.

Ng, Julia. 2018. Coffee and Donuts. Syndicate Lit, ISSN 2378-1769

Ng, Julia and Hamacher, Werner. 2018. Translation: "The One Right No One Ever Has" by Werner Hamacher. Translated from the German by Julia Ng. Philosophy Today, 61(4), pp. 947-962. ISSN 0031-8256

Ng, Julia. 2018. Now, Hamacher. Philosophy Today, 61(4), pp. 1013-1022. ISSN 0031-8256

Ng, Julia. 2017. Acts of Time: Cohen and Benjamin on Mathematics and History. Paradigmi. Rivista di critica filosofica, 1, pp. 41-60. ISSN 2035-357X

Ng, Julia. 2014. ‘+1’: Scholem and the Paradoxes of the Infinite. Rivista italiana di filosofia del linguaggio, 8(2), pp. 196-210. ISSN 2036-6728

Ng, Julia. 2012. Walter Benjamin's and Gershom Scholem's Reading Group Around Hermann Cohen's Kants Theorie der Erfahrung in 1918: An Introduction. Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, and the Marburg School, Special Issue of the Modern Language Notes: German Issue, 127(3), pp. 433-439. ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia. 2012. “Über Kant / On Kant” and “Gegen die metaphysische Erörterung des Raumes / Against the metaphysical exposition of space,” by Gershom Scholem. Edited, annotated, translated, and with a critical introduction by Julia Ng. Modern Language Notes: German Issue, 127(3), pp. 440-461. ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia. 2012. Kant's Theory of Experience at the End of the War: Scholem and Benjamin read Cohen. Modern Language Notes, 127(3), pp. 462-484. ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia and Tobias, Rochelle. 2012. Introduction to the Special Issue: Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, and the Marburg School. Modern Language Notes, 127(3), pp. 427-432. ISSN 0026-7910

Ng, Julia. 2011. Each Thing a Thief: Walter Benjamin on the Agency of Objects. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 44(4), pp. 382-402. ISSN 0031-8213

Conference or Workshop Item

Ng, Julia. 2023. '[Keynote lecture] “Of Translational Justice.”'. In: Afterlives of an Essay: 100 Years of Benjamin’s Task of the Translator.. University of Warwick, United Kingdom 29 - 30 September 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2023. 'Unnatural Means: Max Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Dialectical Task of Becoming Unromantic'. In: Thinking about Shakespeare and Film, Shakespeare in Philosophy Seminar. Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare, United Kingdom 2 September 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2023. 'Completion as Self-Cultivation: Benjamin, Bloch, Zhuangzi'. In: Philosophy of Self-Cultivation. Department of Politics, International Relations, and Philosophy, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom 22 - 23 June 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2023. 'Daoism and Capitalism: Modern German Jewish Philosophy’s Encounter with China'. In: Department of German Graduate Research Seminar Series. University of Cambridge, United Kingdom 1 June 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2023. '‘The ultimate undecidability of all legal problems’: Translating Benjamin’s Philosophy of Law'. In: Translation and the Archive in the Continental Tradition. Royal Holloway, University of London, Centre for Continental Philosophy, Senate House, United Kingdom 19 May 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2023. 'Reversal / fǎn: Kafka, Benjamin, Laozi'. In: American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, Illinois, United States 16-19 March, 2023.

Ng, Julia. 2022. 'Daoism, Organization, Experimentation: The Case of Rosenzweig and Benjamin'. In: Center for Jewish History–Fordham University Lecture Series 2022-23. Fordham University, United States 8 December 2022.

Ng, Julia. 2022. 'Hamlet through the Parlamonium'. In: Shakespeare and the Frantkfurt School of Philosophy. Shakespeare in Philosophy at Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare. Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare, Hampton, United Kingdom 25 June 2022.

Ng, Julia. 2022. 'Translating Benjamin's "Critique of Violence"'. In: Walter Benjamin's Toward the Critique of Violence: A Roundtable Discussion. Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada 17 May 2022.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Benjamin on Law'. In: Working with Benjamin on Law. Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin, Germany 15-17 July 2021.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Cartesian Empiricism'. In: Symposium on Nathan Brown’s Rationalist Empiricism. Seminar on Dialectical Thinking. Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, United States 14 May 2021.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Sapphic Sociability'. In: Women in Theory Symposium. University of Southern California, United States 19 - 20 March 2021.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Histories of Thinking Philosophy [panelist].'. In: Forum for Philosophy. London School of Economics, United Kingdom.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Benjamin on Self-Defense and the Modern State.'. In: Symposium in Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Walter Benjamin’s “Zur Kritik der Gewalt". Department of Political Theory, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.

Ng, Julia. 2021. 'Pablo Oyarzún’s Doing Justice: Book Forum [panelist].'. In: Critical South Book Conversations: International Consortium for Critical Theory Programs. University of California, Berkeley, United States 29 January 2021.

Ng, Julia. 2020. 'Whistling Lillabullero'. In: Singularity’s -abilities: In Celebration of Samuel Weber’s 80th Birthday. Northwestern University, United States.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'Surrealism and Catastrophe (Harnack, Auerbach, Benjamin)'. In: Futures of Catastrophe: Conceiving Crisis, Disaster and Prophecy from Interwar Germany to Contemporary Politics. Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium 11 December 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'Ancient Mexico and Natural History: Walter Benjamin’s Transition Problem'. In: Department of Philosophy Lecture Series, University of Dundee / Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy. Dundee, United Kingdom 6 November 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'No One’s Way: Benjamin, wu wei, and the critique of capitalism (II)'. In: The Metaphysical Society. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland 29 October 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'No One’s Way: Benjamin, wu wei, and the critique of capitalism (I)'. In: Workshop on Critical Theory, Beijing Normal University. Beijing, China 21 September 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'Phrygian Nature'. In: Workshop on Alison Stone’s Nature, Ethics, and Gender in German Romanticism and Idealism. Department of Philosophy, University of Padua, Italy 24-25 June 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'From ethnē to ethnē: notes on the emergence of a political value.'. In: Politics in the Age of the Double-bind: Anti-elitism and Anti-populism. School of Law, University of Kent, United Kingdom 7 June 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'As You Like It: Benjamin’s Comic Infinite'. In: Walter Benjamin and Shakespeare, Kingston Shakespeare Seminar. Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare, Hampton, United Kingdom 6 April 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'Ending Pending: Benjamin’s Theory of Justice.'. In: Philosophy Research Seminar Series, Department of Philosophy. Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom 13 March 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'How does philosophy talk to women? On Sappho, Benjamin, Longinus, and Anne Carson'. In: Women in Theory Network. Washington, D.C., United States 7 March 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2019. 'Undecidability and Reversibility (II)'. In: American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., United States 7-10 March 2019.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'As You Like It: Benjamin’s Comic Infinite'. In: Walter Benjamin and Shakespeare. Warburg Institute, United Kingdom 28 - 29 November 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Actions Without an End: On Karman.'. In: Opening Potentialities: Thinking Ontology and Action with Giorgio Agamben. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 15 November 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Undecidability and Reversibility (I)'. In: Twilight Zones: Undecidabilities in Literature and Literary Theory, Arts and Humanities Research Institute. King's College London, United Kingdom 14 September 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Affect and the Archive'. In: 3rd Conference of The Archive Project, Collège Internationale de Philosophie. London, United Kingdom 3 July 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Rechtsphilosophie after the war: §§4-6 of Benjamin’s ‘Toward the Critique of Violence'. In: The Critique of Violence Now: 4th Conference of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. University of Rijeka, Center for Advanced Studies – South East Europe, Croatia 16-19 June 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'The Mathematicity of an Experience that Passes'. In: Seminar on the “Theologico-Political Fragment”. Associazione Italiana Walter Benjamin, Rome, Italy 11 May 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Truths in the Mirror'. In: American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, United States 29 March - 1 April 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'Women in Critical Theory'. In: Women in Theory Workshop, University of Southern California. Los Angeles, United States 29 March 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2018. 'The Truth in Mirrors: Language and Politics After the Fact'. In: Department of Political Science. San Francisco State University 27 March 2018.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'The Truth in Mirrors: Some Remarks on Language and Politics After the Fact'. In: Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts. Warwick University, United Kingdom 5 December 2017.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'After the Fact'. In: After Benjamin. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 28 September 2017.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'Anhypotheton'. In: American Comparative Literature Association. Utrecht, Netherlands.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'Surrealism's Political-Theological Afterlife: Benjamin, Blumenberg, Taubes'. In: Workshop on Crises of Meaning and Political Theology. University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'A Small History of 'Sincerity': Rousseau, Gide, Benjamin'. In: Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory Seminar Series. Cardiff University, United Kingdom.

Ng, Julia. 2017. 'Decomposing Gesture (1936)'. In: Tigersprung, Department of Art. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 9 March 2017.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Sketching the Sky Torn Asunder'. In: Gesture: A Workshop. Warburg Institute, London, United Kingdom 2 Dec 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Nur zu Zeiten: Philology and the Word in Time (Klopstock, Hölderlin, George)'. In: Yale German Department Lecture Series. Yale University, United States 3 Nov 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Daoism and Critical Theory'. In: Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. New York University, United States 31 Oct 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. '“Intellectual history and critical theory,” Panel on “Methodologies” (with Quentin Skinner, Barbara Taylor, Lea Ypi)'. In: London Summer School in Intellectual History. UCL, United Kingdom 7 Sep 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'The Highest Continuity: Philology and the Concept of Time'. In: ICLA. Vienna, Austria 21-27 July 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Sincerity as a Political Emotion (Roundtable discussant)'. In: Concepts of Passions and Politics, Institute of Advanced Studies. UCL, United Kingdom 3 June 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Philologies of the Crisis'. In: Economies of the Crisis, Kandersteg Seminar, Remarque Institute NYU. Kandersteg, Switzerland 13-17 April 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Freiheitszusammenhang: Benjamin and the Theatre of the Irrational'. In: Postgraduate Research Seminar, Department of English. Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom 31 Mar 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2016. 'Benjamin’s Theater of the Irrational.'. In: Theatre of the A-human, Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany 12-13 Feb 2016.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'Die höchste Kontinuität: Philologie und der Begriff der Zeit'. In: Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik. Shanghai, China 23-31 Aug 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'Acts of Time: Cohen and Benjamin on Mathematics and History'. In: Hermann-Cohen-Gesellschaft Conference on “Critical Idealism and Messianism: From Hermann Cohen to Walter Benjamin and beyond,” University of Rome Tre and University of Turin. Rome, Italy 19-20 Oct 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'Scholem and the ‘Zionistic Point of Mathematics'. In: Society for Contemporary Jewish Philosophy Annual Meeting, Society for Phenomenological and Existential Philosophy. Atlanta, GA, United States 8-10 Oct 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'The Most Precise Tangency: Benjamin and the Lumières'. In: GSA. Washington, DC, United States 1-4 Oct 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'The Poverty in Art'. In: Distinguished Friends of Yonsei University Lecture Series, Underwood International College, Yonsei University. Seoul, Korea, Republic of 3 Sep 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2015. 'The Action of Non-Action: Benjamin, Daoism, and the Image'. In: Daoism and Capitalism: A Workshop.. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 10 March 2015.

Ng, Julia. 2014. 'The Poverty in Art'. In: MFA Lecture Series, Department of Art, Goldsmiths. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 1 Dec 2014.

Ng, Julia. 2014. 'Drawing and Governance'. In: Myers Symposium in Honor of David Van Zanten, Art Institute of Chicago and Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Chicago, IL, United States 17-18 Oct 2014.

Ng, Julia. 2014. 'Body, Force, Right: figures of life after nature'. In: SEP/FEP 2014: After Nature. University of Utrecht, Netherlands 2-6 Sep 2014.

Ng, Julia. 2013. 'Zettelkästen: Benjamin’s Jean Paul and the Afterlife of the Aesthetic'. In: International Walter Benjamin Congress: On the Concept of History/Writing History. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany 12-15 Dec 2013.

Ng, Julia. 2013. 'Picturing Pure Power (with Benjamin)'. In: Mathematics, Philosophy, and Literature, Mahindra Humanities Center. Harvard University, United States 11-12 April 2013.

Further profile content

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Research projects

2023: Daoism and Capitalism: Early Critical Theory and the Global South
British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship MCFSS23\230039

2023: Daoism and Capitalism: Chinese Modernity in the Archives of Modern German Jewish Philosophy
British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant SRG2223\230174

Media engagements

2022: Walter Benjamin’s Critique of Violence at 100: A Roundtable Discussion.
Panel discussion on the new critical edition of Benjamin’s “Toward the Critique of Violence" (Stanford UP, 2021), hosted by the Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

2021: ZfL Berlin / Walter Benjamin Archiv - “Benjamin on Law”
Keynote lecture for conference on Working with Benjamin on Law, ZfL Berlin and Walter Benjamin Archiv

2021: Forum for Philosophy/LSE - Histories of Thinking Philosophy
Julia Ng, Jonathan Rée, and Justin E H Smith interrogate familiar narratives of philosophical history and explore more diverse, plural, and sometimes contradictory accounts of philosophical thought.

2021: Political Theory/Humboldt Universität Berlin - “Benjamin on Self-Defense and the Modern State.”
Symposium in Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Walter Benjamin’s “Zur Kritik der Gewalt. Media response: https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-8948

2021: ICCTP/UC Berkeley - Book Forum on Pablo Oyarzún’s Doing Justice.
Critical South Book Conversations. International Consortium for Critical Theory Programs, UC Berkeley.

Conferences and talks

2022: “Hamlet through the Parlamonium.”
Shakespeare and the Frankfurt School. Shakespeare in Philosophy at Garrick’s Temple

2021: [Keynote lecture] “Benjamin on Law.”
Working with Benjamin on Law, Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung (ZfL), Walter Benjamin Archiv Berlin, International Walter Benjamin Society (15-17 July, 2021)

2019: [Keynote lecture] “Surrealism and Catastrophe (Harnack, Auerbach, Benjamin).”
Futures of Catastrophe: Conceiving Crisis, Disaster and Prophecy from Interwar Germany to Contemporary Politics, Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven (11 December 2019)

2019: “Ancient Mexico and Natural History: Walter Benjamin’s Transition Problem.”
Department of Philosophy Lecture Series, University of Dundee / Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy (6 November 2019)

2019: “Phrygian Nature.”
Nature Between Politics and Metaphysics: Reassessing German Idealism and Romanticism, Department of Philosophy, University of Padua (24-25 June 2019)

2019: “From ethnē to ethnē: notes on the emergence of a political value.”
Politics in the Age of the Double-bind: Anti-elitism and Anti-populism, School of Law, University of Kent (7 June 2019)

2019: “As You Like It: Benjamin’s Comic Infinite.”
Walter Benjamin and Shakespeare, Kingston Shakespeare Seminar (6 April 2019)

Grants and awards

2022: The Center for Jewish History - Fordham University Research Fellowship
“Daoism and Capitalism”

2022: British Society for the History of Philosophy Scholarly Activity Award
“Daoism and Capitalism”

2018: British Society of Aesthetics Small Grant
“Baudelaire and Philosophy”

2013: Charles Bernheimer Prize, American Comparative Literature Association

2012: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University

2011: Crown Family Center Fellowship for Jewish Studies, Northwestern University

2010: Josephine de Kármán Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

2009: Dissertation Year Fellowship, Northwestern University

2008: Fellowship, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2007: Trustees Merit Citation, Carter Manny Award, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

2007: Paris Program in Critical Theory Fellowship, Northwestern University

Supervision

Julia welcomes expressions of interest from students considering a PhD on any topic related to her areas of expertise.