Book panel on ‘The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy – Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West’ by A.J.A. Woods with Larne Abse Gogarty , Annie Kelly and Georgios Samaras

Tuesday, 2 June 2026 
6-8pm
Goldsmiths, Room RHB 137

Free and open to all.

Panelists:

A.J.A. Woods is an intellectual historian who lives in Brighton, England. Their first book, The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West, was released by Verso Books in April 2026. Their previous writings on the Frankfurt School and the far right have been translated into four languages and published in Open Democracy, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, Public Seminar, & Patterns of Prejudice. They are a member of the ecosocialist group Anti*Capitalist Resistance. 

Larne Abse Gogarty is a writer and art historian from London. She is an associate professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Larne is the author of two books: What We Do Is Secret: Contemporary Art and the Antinomies of Conspiracy (Sternberg Press, 2023) and Usable Pasts: Social Practice and State Formation in American Art (Brill, 2022) Currently, she is working on a new project about recent sculpture and commodity culture through the lens of salvage and scavenging. Larne has written catalogue essays for artists including Sam Gilliam, Alice Neel, and Gray Wielebinski and regularly writes criticism, mainly for Art Monthly. In 2026, she curated an exhibition entitled Conspiracies at the Warburg Institute, London. She is in the editorial group for Selva journal and Oxford Art Journal. 

Annie Kelly is a journalist and researcher specialising in digital antifeminism, conspiracy theories and the far right. She completed her PhD about digital antifeminist networks at the University of East Anglia in 2020 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC-funded “Everything is Connected: Conspiracy Theories in the Age of the Internet” project at King’s College London. She is the UK correspondent for the QAA Podcast (formerly QAnon Anonymous). 

Dr Georgios Samaras is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at King’s College London. His research focuses on European and American politics, with particular attention to how far-right ideas move from the margins into the mainstream and what that shift means for democratic governance. He is a Research Associate at the LSE Hellenic Observatory and at ENA Institute, an advisory board member at ETERON, and a member of the Reactionary Politics Research Network. He has written for The Guardian, POLITICO, The Independent, the New Statesman and Jacobin. His debut book, The Long Shadow of Golden Dawn, is forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature in 2026.

About the book:

“Cultural Marxism” is one of the far right’s favorite buzzwords. But despite its currency, the meaning and origins of the term are rarely investigated. This book uncovers the bizarre story of the cult leaders, right-wing intellectuals, and White House officials who believe a coterie of left-wing scholars and students is plotting to undermine Western civilization. Drawing on years of archival research and using the tools of critical theory, A.J.A. Woods reveals how a group of German thinkers known as the Frankfurt School was recast as the sinister orchestra-tors of a global conspiracy. Instead of simply debunking this conspiracy theory, Woods offers a sharp analysis and critique of the political movements that have declared war on all that passes for Cultural Marxism in the US, the UK, and Brazil.
Only when we understand the practices and weaknesses of those reactionaries committed to fighting this illusory threat—a conflict causing real-world damage—can we effectively resist. This is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand the ideological currents shaping politics in the twenty-first century.