On August 7th, I had the wonderful opportunity to discuss my book, The Dark Charisma of Donald Trump: Political Psychology and the MAGA Movement, at the Self Society Symposium (SSS) at Loyola University in Chicago. The SSS is coordinated by the great scholar, Lauren Langman, of Loyola University. I was joined by many other sociologists, psychologists, theologians, and philosophers to discuss ongoing issues in our society, especially the U.S. drift towards authoritarianism. In my presentation, I used Erich Fromm’s notion of the “Magic Helper,” found in his seminal 1941 book, Escape from Freedom, to highlight how Trump’s most submissive devotees perceive him as a national messianic force. We had a wonderful dinner and discourse the night before our symposium at Lauren’s house in Lincoln Park, for which Lauren was the most gracious host.
If you are interested in my book, The Dark Charisma of Donald Trump: Political Psychology and the MAGA Movement, it is available three different ways: Ekpyrosis Press Website; Amazon; Lulu.
On July 17-19, the Institute for Critical Social Theory hosted their inaugural conference at the University of Bristol, UK. I was a great honor to welcome so many scholars to the ICST event. We had thirteen presentations, two plenary addresses, and a round table discussion about critical theory during times of war (See the schedule below). We are looking forward to our next conference in 2026, with Istanbul being the agreed upon destination. Keep an eye out for that Call for Papers.
If you’d like to listen to my plenary address, wherein I discuss what it means to be critical in an age of social disintegration, you can find it on YouTube:
For more information on the Institute for Critical Social Theory, please visit our website: ICST
On Friday, May 16th, I had the distinct honor to address The University of Olivet’s 2025 graduating class during their Baccalaureate ceremony. Nominated by my student Lily Rozeveld and voted upon by the senior class, I was chosen to give a speech that would embody the theme of their event: “New Beginnings.” In my speech, entitled “From Catastrophe to New Beginnings,” I discussed the dialect of history using the 1946 “blinding of Isaac Woodard” as the animating subject. From the horror of the racist attack on Sgt. Woodard came the desegregation of the public schools throughout the United States. Woodard never knew that his case created the reverberations that changed history. Thank you Joylyn Stover for the audio recording and the Dr. Linda Logan for the picture. To hear the speech, see the YouTube link below.
On May 3rd, 2025, I had the opportunity to discuss with the critical theorist and theologian, Dr. Rudolf Siebert, the life, times, and martyrdom of the Jesuit priest, Father Alfred Delp. Born of his Catholic faith, Delp was a staunch anti-Nazi, and was part of the Kreisau Circle that envisioned a new and radically different society that would come after the fall of the Nazis. Because of this, and because of his tangential connection to Claus von Stauffenberg’s failed assassination plot against Hitler, Delp was arrested, imprisoned, interrogated, beaten, and eventually stood trial in front of the communist-turned-fascist judge, Roland Freisler. Found guilty, Delp was executed on February 2, 1945. This discourse was sponsored by Ekpyrosis Press and the Institute for Critical Social Theory.
Come join the Institute for Critical Social Theory at our inaugural conference, July 17-19, 2025, at Bristol University (UK). Seyed Javad Miri and I are the plenary speakers in this three day conference. Our conference theme is “Critical Theory in an Age of Social Disintegration.” The Call for Papers is below, or visit us at the ICST website: Institute for Critical Social Theory.
On December 7th, 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to join Rudy Leal McCormack and Maior Levitin on “The Fromm Connection,” wherein we discussed a variety of topics as they related to my recent publication, “Can Religion be Rescued in the 21st Century: On Erich Fromm’s Religious Humanism in an Age of Authoritarian Populism” (Journal of Psychosocial Studies). I deeply appreciate their invitation to discuss Erich Fromm and his continual relevance to today’s society.
Ali Shariati: Critical Social Theory and the Struggle for Decolonization, edited by Dustin J. Byrd and Seyed Javad Miri
Ali Shariati (1933-1977) is best known as a “revolutionary theorist,” closely connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979. While his social, political, and religious thought was deeply influential in those turbulent times, Shariati was much more than a political ideologue. A scholar of religion, philosophy, and sociology, Shariati was fluent both in Western and Islamic thought, which allowed him to create some of the most penetrating “critical” thought in the 20th century, applicable to both the West and the dār al-Islām. While he remains controversial inside his home country, his influence has grown beyond its borders. Today, contemporary theorists are returning to Shariati’s written works, seeing his voluminous writing as a precursor to the decolonization movement, which seeks to emancipate the non-Western world from the vestiges of Western colonial domination. In many ways, Shariati laid the foundation for such emancipatory work through his own struggle against the Shah of Iran and the clerical establishment that supported the status quo. This collection of essays returns to a variety of the Shariati’s core concepts, as it seeks to interrogate them, revitalize them, and engage our own age of strife through these Shariatian perspectives.
Contributors: Dustin J. Byrd, Seyed Javad Miri, Joseph Alagha, Esmaeil Zeiny, Vahideh Sadeghi, Bijan Abdolkarimi, Raewyn Connell, Carimo Mohomed, Tanveer Azamat, Teo Lee Ken, Milad Dokhanchi, Fatemeh Shayan, Ali S. Harfouch, M.S. Kolbadi, and Mohammad Masud Noruzi.
Available on the Ekpyrosis Press website: Ali Shariati
On Thursday, November 14th, 2024, I had the great pleasure of welcoming Dr. Rainer Funk into my course on Erich Fromm, “Visionary Thinkers: Freedom and Fear.” Dr. Funk spoke with my class via Zoom from Tübingen, Germany, where he is the Director of the Erich Fromm Institute, the Co-Director of the Erich Fromm Study Center at the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) in Berlin, and a practicing psychoanalyst. He is Erich Fromm’s sole Literary Executor and among his publications are the 10-volume German edition of Erich Fromm Collected Works (1980 and 1981; expanded to 12-volumes in 1999). We were pleased to benefit from his knowledge of Erich Fromm and wisdom about the world.
dustinjbyrd
Dustin J. Byrd, Ph.D. 