International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs
University of California, Berkeley, Northwestern University
In December 2016, the University of California, Berkeley received a three-and-a-half year, $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. The task of this international consortium is to document, connect, and support the new and varied forms that critical theory has assumed in light of contemporary global challenges, including challenges to the university as an institution charged with the task of safeguarding and promoting critical thought. The Consortium is co-directed by Professor Judith Butler (UC Berkeley) and Professor Penelope Deutscher (Northwestern University).
Located in the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, the Consortium maintains a multi-lingual website that provides information on critical theory programs and initiatives throughout the world, seeking to connect programs and projects that have for too long remained unknown to one another. The Consortium will also publish a book series, Critical South, with Polity Press and an online journal called Critical Times, and will convene biannual conferences focused on contemporary critical issues of global concern such as violence, memory, democracy, and the critical tasks of the university. As well, the Consortium will expand the Critical Theory Archive at the UC Irvine to more fully represent the global scope of the field. The Consortium also invites international scholars to engage with faculty and students on the UC Berkeley campus. Under the direction of Northwestern University, a curricular initiative of the Consortium, Critical Theory in the Global South, will develop new teaching curricula reflective of critical theory’s global reach in conjunction with an associated program of international graduate student exchange.
With all of these initiatives, the Consortium seeks to establish the new global contours of Critical Theory today, supporting critical thought both inside and outside the university, and seeking collaborative ways to become more responsive to pressing global challenges. The Consortium seeks both to preserve and to galvanize the study of critical theory in its myriad global forms, underscoring the crucial place of critical thought in the university and in its various public lives. The Consortium aims to incite new forms of collaborative research among a wide range of regions and languages, connecting the disconnected and foregrounding the periphery in an effort to respond critically to contemporary challenges to critical thinking, including neoliberal metrics and forms of normalization that suppress or devalue the critical and transformative potential of thought itself.
The Directory of Programs, Centers, and Projects is a work in progress, with new institutes and programs entered as their information arrives. This directory aims to foster international and interdisciplinary collaborations, connecting diverse initiatives across the globe. Though it already includes more than 300 critical theory programs, centers, institutes, projects, summer programs, fellowships and archives, its listings are neither exhaustive nor definitive. Further suggestions for this dynamic and expanding network are always welcome. To recommend a program for inclusion in the directory, please see our referrals form, or contact us directly. Please note that potential affiliates will be asked to complete a request form and will be listed only after the registration process is completed.
Contact Information
Judith Butler, Co-Director
Penelope Deutscher, Co-Director
440 Stephens Hall, MC 2340
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
United States http://www.criticaltheoryconsortium.org
info.ictconsortium@berkeley.edu
Region
Africa
Asia and the Pacific Rim
Europe
Latin America & Caribbean
Middle East
North America
Year Established
2016