Concept Club was established by Benedict Moleta in 2024, as a PhD research seminar in the Department of International Relations, ANU.

Since then the club has become a forum for discussion and exploration, with speakers from across disciplines and schools at the ANU, plus special guests.

At each meeting, several ten-minute talks are given on any concept in international affairs – from public goods to political Islam, from regionalism to resource-curse, from neutralism to the state, and from exile to luck. Presentations are followed by Q and A.

The aim of these gatherings is to expand our understanding of concepts in international affairs across disciplinary and institutional borders, and to examine how ideas shape realities at all scales of political, economic and social interaction.

The focus is on experimentation and conversation - as Coral Bell once wrote "No attempt at definition has been intended, only a contribution to argument."

In person attendance is limited to PhD students and invited guests.

For the first time, we are opening the club to online attendance, on April 15, 2026. All welcome.

Speakers
Dr Raj Kaithwar
Raj is a theorist and educator in International Relations and Environmental Humanities. His research critiques anthropocentrism and highlights more-than-human assemblages of geopolitics, particularly through an environmental history of transboundary rivers in South Asia.
Raj will speak on the concept of UnEarth Geopolitics.

Maegan Miccelli
Maegan is a PhD candidate at the ANU School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet). Her research concerns how vulnerability is constructed through research, information and policy networks, and the implications of these constructions in how extreme heat is governed in Phoenix, Arizona.
Maegan will speak on the concept of Emergence.

Matteo Cianforlini
Matteo is a PhD Candidate in Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna and a visiting scholar at the Australian National University. His research focuses on the international development finance regime, with particular attention to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, and examines how these institutions shape and contest existing norms of global financial governance.
Matteo will speak on the concept of Regime Complexity.

Additional information:
Registration is required for this event. If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan please email bell.marketing@anu.edu.au. Accessible parking spaces are available around campus should you require them.

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C

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