Building on over twenty years of excellence in the field of critical theory at The University of Nottingham, the Centre for Critical Theory facilitates and promotes cutting-edge research that aims to maintain critical theory’s relevance for contemporary society, politics and culture.
Whilst fully embracing the inclusivity of the term, the Centre broadly conceives of critical theory as arising from the intersections of three traditions in the humanities and social sciences. Firstly, the tradition of continental philosophy that incorporates German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism, structuralism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, as well as the method of immanent critique developed by the Frankfurt School with its emphasis on the writings of Marx and Freud; secondly, the tradition of literary criticism that provides tools for the analysis of “texts” in both the narrow and the expansive sense; thirdly, the field of anthropology that examines the multiplicity of everyday cultural practices and sense-making rituals. However, to the extent that these are critical traditions we believe that the practice of critical theory must remain “anti-Oedipal”. In other words, theory ought to distance itself from established and emergent orthodoxies through an engagement with the complexity of the present. We therefore believe that today’s critical theory must continue to concern itself with ethical and political matters of resistance, transgression, and transformation.
To this end, the Centre for Critical Theory’s activities will include:
-
An annual international critical theory conference
-
Workshops, reading groups and colloquia
-
A visiting speaker series (which has included, among others, W.J.T. Mitchell, Geoff Bennington, Chantal Mouffe, Simon Critchley and Luce Irigaray)
-
A biannual critical theory journal
-
Opportunities for doctoral supervision from among its members
-
The delivery of five innovative MA programmes (Critical Theory, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, Critical Theory and Politics, Critical Theory and Architecture, and Post-Conflict Cultures)