In a classroom in Fisk Hall, a small group of students sits down to talk about the intricacies of Karl Marx’s philosophy.
Every week, the students discuss different readings on topics ranging from Bonapartism to the Revolutions of 1848, but not for class or for a grade.
They are members of Northwestern’s chapter of the Platypus Affiliated Society, an international organization that holds reading groups, panels, forums and other events to learn about the “‘Old’ (1920s–30s), ‘New’ (1960s–70s) and post-political (1980s–90s) Left,” as described on the PAS website.
“It’s kind of ambiguous what exactly is the end product of Platypus,” said Medill junior Allen You, head of NU’s chapter of Platypus. “I think the most immediate outcome we want is a critical engagement with the Left — i.e., that through reading the syllabus, we want people to look at this whole history and try to make sense of the present.”
Platypus meets every Monday in Fisk Hall to discuss weekly readings based on a syllabus taken from the international organization, which stays the same from year to year.
The syllabus includes works by and about the philosophies of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and other Marxist thinkers.
Weinberg freshman Sean Stenger joined Platypus out of intellectual curiosity, and he said he appreciates the readings for their application to his classes.
Stenger’s first-year seminar is about Japanese role-playing games, recently focusing on if “video game-type systems” have been imposed on neoliberal society. He said his Platypus readings from Max Horkheimer connected to his seminar’s discussion on whether people believe themselves as “part of a system which is inherently outside of themselves.”
“I didn’t have this opportunity in high school. We didn’t really have any sort of organized interest in the Left at all,” Stenger said. “Now I can come here and talk about it. As I kept going on with it, I realized ‘Wow, I really do know very little.’ That also is motivating to come back and keep reading.”
As the current chapter head, You is responsible for facilitating the weekly reading groups and encouraging discussion at each session.
In addition, Benjamin Katz (Weinberg ’25), former head of NU’s Platypus chapter, said his interpretations of the texts changed each year depending on the social and political climate at the time.
“It feels as though you’re accessing something different, because it speaks differently to the present,” he said. “It really is a striking experience revisiting something that you felt like you had worked through a year (ago), and it seems as though there are completely different parts of it that are really speaking to you or challenging you.”
You said NU’s chapter of Platypus is an “inherently small organization” and that member participation usually hovers at around the same “very strong and disciplined” five members. Katz said they can “ask questions that nobody asks.”
In addition to a weekly reading group, Platypus also holds coffee break meetings on Tuesdays in Norris University Center to discuss Leftist topics. The group also hosts panels with members of local Leftist organizations and occasionally screens movies.
“You don’t have to be a Marxist to join Platypus,” You said. “You can be a staunchly conservative person, and we would love to have you at a reading group because the point is not to argue with you or to force you to think like us, but really grab some kind of salience from the exposure to the texts.”
The 18th Annual International Convention of the PAS will be held at NU in Spring 2026. The NU Platypus chapter received funding from ASG to hold the event and fly in members from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other countries to meet and discuss the political Left.
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