Dr Maïa Pal

BA Hon, MA, PhD, PGCTHE, FHEA

Senior Lecturer in International Relations

School of Law and Social Sciences

Teaching and supervision

Courses

International Relations and Politics (BA (Hons))

Modules taught

INRL4001 From Empires to States: the origins of international relations
INRL4002 Global Challenges
INRL5007 Uncivil Society: Constituting Global Order
INRL6003 Law, Empires, Revolutions

Supervision

PhD Supervision Aleida Gomez de Caso Villar on ‘The Political Economy of Data and the Surveillance State: Cadastres and the Spanish Case’ (start date Autumn 2023)

Research

My research cuts across international relations theory, international political economy, and the history of international law. It develops a critical international history for understanding large-scale social change and global phenomena such as mercantilism, capitalism, and the construction of the modern international legal order. I focus on early modern overseas consuls as agents of imperialism, and on the development of early modern empires. Other historical topics include concepts of early modern cosmologies and debates on the transition to capitalism and multiplicity. In the contemporary political economy, I am focusing on debates on digital capitalism and techno-feudalism, and on the role of undersea communications cables.

Research impact

Podcasts and Webinars

Voices EISA podcast, ‘What is… Political Marxism?’, August 2022
Deutscher Prize podcast on Jurisdictional Accumulation with Alex Colas, June 2022
Guest on 'The Full English’ podcast discussing the origins of capitalism for the relationship between English identity and food, April 2022
HM podcast on symposium publication 'Debates in Political Marxism', Nov 2021
Podcasts and webinars with AdvanceHE on 'Employability: a review of the literature 2016-2021'
'Marxism in IR', Podcast Interview for OccupyIRTheory, hosted by Dr Nicholas Kiersey
Guest author for Verso Books blog on Marx's 200th anniversary, 5 May 2018
Guest on TV show The Fix (Novara Media) ‘Can Labour ever be a vehicle for a progressive foreign policy?’ 24 February 2016
Roundtable debate with MP John McDonnell, Luke Cooper, Simon Hardy, Lynne Segal and Mary G. Clarke ‘Beyond Capitalism (The Alternative Queen’s Speech)’, 'People’s Parliament', House of Commons, London, 4 June 2015.

Book Reviews

Symposium on Jurisdictional Accumulation in the Brazilian branch of the International Law Association blog, International Law Agendas.
Review by Christopher Tomlins
Review by Joel Wainwright

Publications

Pal M, Jurisdiction, legal form, and the transition to capitalism debate: recovering agency and discontinuity
Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory [online first] (2025) ISSN: 1465-4466 eISSN: 1569-206X Jurisdiction, legal form, and the transition to capitalism debate: recovering agency and discontinuity Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, A New Research Programme for International Relations and International Law: Jurisdiction, Capitalism, and Imperialist Infrastructures
National Law School of India Review 35 (2) (2025) ISSN: 0974-4894
Dönmez P, Pal M, Sutton A, Valuing Transition/Transitioning Value: class struggle in Open Marxism and Political Marxism
Capital & Class [in press] (2025) ISSN: 0309-8168 eISSN: 2041-0980 Valuing Transition/Transitioning Value: class struggle in Open Marxism and Political Marxism Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, Harris N, Capital is Dead. Long Live Capital! A Political Marxist Analysis of Digital Capitalism and Infrastructure.
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique 22 (1) (2024) pp.232-247 ISSN: 1726-670X eISSN: 1726-670X Capital is Dead. Long Live Capital! A Political Marxist Analysis of Digital Capitalism and Infrastructure. Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, "My capitalism is bigger than yours!" : against combining "how the West came to rule" with "the origins of capitalism"
Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory 26 (3) (2018) pp.99-124 ISSN: 1465-4466 eISSN: 1569-206X "My capitalism is bigger than yours!" : against combining "how the West came to rule" with "the origins of capitalism" Open Access version on RADAR
Odysseos L, Pal M, Towards Critical Pedagogies of the International? Student Resistance, Other-regardedness and Self-formation in the Neoliberal University
International Studies Perspectives 19 (1) (2018) pp.1-26 ISSN: 1528-3577 eISSN: 1528-3585 Towards Critical Pedagogies of the International? Student Resistance, Other-regardedness and Self-formation in the Neoliberal University Open Access version on RADAR
Nişancıoğlu N, Pal M, Counter-Conduct in the University Factory: Locating the Occupy Sussex Campaign
Global Society 30 (2) (2016) pp.279-300 ISSN: 1360-0826 eISSN: 1469-798X Counter-Conduct in the University Factory: Locating the Occupy Sussex Campaign Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, Old alliances, new struggles: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Radical Philosophy 190 (2015) pp.8-12 ISSN: 0300-211X eISSN: 0300-211X

Pal M, Jurisdictional Accumulation: an early modern history of law, empires, and capital,
Cambridge University Press (2020) ISBN: 9781108497206 eISBN: 9781108684538 Jurisdictional Accumulation: an early modern history of law, empires, and capital Open Access version on RADAR
Margolies DS, Özsu U, Pal M, Tzouvala N, (ed.), The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics ,
Routledge (2019) ISBN: 9780815378587 eISBN: 9781351231992 The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics Open Access version on RADAR

Pal M, Historical Sociology in International Relations
in Mlada Bukovansky, Edward Keene, Christian Reus-Smit, Maja Spanu (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations, Oxford University Press (2023) ISBN: 9780198873457 eISBN: 9780191986468 Historical Sociology in International Relations Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, Employability as Exploitability: A Marxist Critical Pedagogy
in Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism, Palgrave Macmillan (2021) ISBN: 9783030826680 eISBN: 9783030826697 Employability as Exploitability: A Marxist Critical Pedagogy Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, International Relations
in SAGE handbook of Marxism, Sage (2021) ISBN: 9781473974234 eISBN: 9781526436108 International Relations Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, Early Modern Extraterritoriality, Diplomacy, and the Transition to Capitalism
in Margolies DS, Özsu U, Pal M, Tzouvala N (ed.), The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics, Routledge (2019) ISBN: 9780815378587 eISBN: 9781351231985 Early Modern Extraterritoriality, Diplomacy, and the Transition to Capitalism Open Access version on RADAR
Margolies DS, Özsu U, Pal M, Tzouvala N, Introduction
in Margolies DS, Özsu U, Pal M, Tzouvala N (ed.), The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics, Routledge (2019) Introduction Open Access version on RADAR
Pal M, Marxism
in Stephen McGlinchey, Rosie Walters & Christian Scheinpflug (ed.), International Relations Theory, E-International Relations Publishing (2017) ISBN: 9781910814192 eISBN: 9781910814208

Pal M, review of On the methodological limits of the commodity form theory of law in The Corporation, Law and Capitalism
London Review of International Law 8 (1) (2020) pp.191-199 ISSN: 2050-6325 eISSN: 2050-6333

Pal M, Radical Historicism or Rules of Reproduction? New Debates in Political Marxism ,
(2021) Radical Historicism or Rules of Reproduction? New Debates in Political Marxism Open Access version on RADAR
Dalrymple R, Macrae A, Pal M, Shipman S, Advance HE Employability: A Review of the Literature 2016-2021 ,
(2021)

'With or Without You! Migrant Subjects and the Never-ending Tragedy of Liberalism', Salvage Quarterly, 5, October 2017, 161-174.
‘Introduction to ‘Britain versus France: How Many Sonderwegs?’ by Ellen Meiksins Wood’, Historical Materialism, 24(1), 2016, 3-10
‘David Harvey et la géographie de l’accumulation capitaliste’, Les Nouveaux Cahiers du Socialisme (Société de développement des périodiques culturels québécois - SODEP), Hiver 2015, 13, 145-151

Online

'Vanity project or stroke of genius? The puzzle of Making Global Society' book symposium on Barry Buzan’s Making Global Society, Progress in Political Economy (PPE) blog, 27 February 2024
'How many jurisdictions are ‘blowin’ in the wind’? Reflecting on shifts and methods in critical histories of international law' Reply to symposium on Jurisdictional Accumulation, International Law Agendas blog, 27 August 2021,
‘Consul Games (and Other Legal Stories of Empire)’, fifteen eighty four - academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press Blog, 23 February 2021,
‘Jurisdictional Accumulation: Revisiting Imperial Expansion’ Progress in Political Economy (PPE) blog, 9 February 2021,
'Response to a question on the Gilets Jaunes' State of Nature blog, 6 June 2019,
(with Doerthe Rosenow) 'Decolonising International Relations - and beyond' Upstream Newsletter (Issue 3, March 2018), Oxford Brookes University
(with Dr Doerthe Rosenow) 'Decolonising International Relations – some Pedagogical Reflections', TheDisorder of Things, 4 March 2018
‘Uncomfortable Pedagogy: decolonising and diversifying the curriculum in Politics, IR, and Sociology’, GPES Bits and Blogs, 20 June 2017
‘The Past is Dead. Long Live the Past! A Manifesto for (Teaching) Social Change’, E-International Relations, 17 July 2015
‘#BlackLivesMatter: The New Black Liberation Movement’, The Disorder of Things, 13 January 2015
‘Education for sale: Sussex should learn from London Met’, 1 November 2012
(with Luke Cooper), ‘Lectures from a spin doctor: a NATO strategist’s position at a top British university’, 30 June 2011.

Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

Member of professional associations BISA and ISA.
Co-convenor of BISA Historical Sociology Working Group 2021-2023.
Guicciardini Prize Committee member (Best book in Historical IR), ISA, 2025-2027

Conferences

Opening plenary for Historical Materialism Paris conference, 26-28 June 2025
'The law of infrastructure: Jurisdictional accumulation and neo-imperialism at British and French undersea cable landing sites' at the London Group of Historical Geographers' seminar, Institute of Historical Research, 3 Dec 2024
HM Annual London conference, SOAS, University of London, discussant for Heide Gerstenberger’s Market and Violence and discussant on a panel with Justin Rosenberg on multiplicity, 7-10 Nov 2024
conference 'Belligerent Accumulation: Natural Right, Valorization, and Aesthetics in Colonial Modernity Histories – Transformations – Resistances' 23-25 May 2024 at the European University Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder) - online roundtable on TWAIL and Jurisdiction, organised by NLSIR on 23-24 April 2024
panel on ‘Dancing the dialectic to the tune of the philosophy of internal relations' for ISA Annual Convention, San Francisco, 3-6 April 2024 with paper on ‘A dialectic of legal form and jurisdiction for theorising social change in international law: from Pashukanis to Political Marxism’ - Alternative Societies workshop, presentation on ‘Theory and Praxis Today: on the role of intellectuals’, Oxford Brookes University, 18 Dec 2023
workshop on ‘Law: between Abolition and Critique’ at the University of Sussex, 17 July 2023
Symposium on Embedding Employability (with Shirley Shipman), University of Portsmouth, 12 October 2022 (Online)
‘On Jurisdictional Accumulation’, Marx Now: Borders and Boundaries Conference, Copenhagen, October 2020 (Online)
Birkbeck University, symposium on Alex Colas and Liam Campling’s Capitalism and the Sea, Nov 2021 (Online)
University of Nottingham, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), School of Politics & International Relations, Jurisdictional Accumulation book talk, Nov 2021 (Online)
Oxford Brookes University, ‘Employability and Social Justice - key tips for surviving work’ with Humza Naeem, Tristram Hooley, Christine Lewis and Neal Harris, 13 Oct 2021
BISA Annual Online Conference, Roundtable book launch for Jurisdictional Accumulation with Edward Keene, Julia Costa Lopez, Kelly-Jo Bluen and Yassin Brunger, June 2021

Further details

I previously taught at the University of Sussex and at the University of Brighton in Hastings. I am bilingual in French and English.

Academia.edu site

Dr Ma​ïa Pal