University of California, Irvine. Critical Theory Institute

The Critical Theory Institute (CTI) is an interdisciplinary, collaborative research group at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), comprising 15 to 20 active members from various UCI departments in the humanities and social sciences. CTI began in the early 1980s as an informal reading group and since 1987 has operated as an organized research unit. CTI is closely allied with UCI's curricular program in critical theory. Every three to four years, CTI organizes research projects focusing on a particular theme. Around this theme, CTI organizes several presentations and discussions of work of both CTI members and invited guests in its Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory series. Past themes have included "Politics, Theory, and Contemporary Culture" and "Forces of Globalization." Books are compiled after the research projects are complete and have included many of the Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory. Since 1981 CTI has sponsored the Wellek Library Lectures, an annual lecture series named in honor of Professor Emeritus Rene Wellek (Yale University), whose papers and library of works in critical theory are housed at UCI's Special Collections and Archives. Each year CTI invites internationally distinguished critical theorist to deliver a series of three lectures at UCI in which he or she develops a critical position and relates it to the contemporary theoretical scene.

From the description of Critical Theory Institute audio and video recordings, University of California, Irvine, 1987 - 2008. (University of California, Irvine). WorldCat record id: 681407440

Historical Background

The Critical Theory Institute (CTI) is an interdisciplinary, collaborative research group at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), comprising 15 to 20 active members from various UCI departments in the humanities and social sciences. CTI began in the early 1980s as an informal reading group and since 1987 has operated as an organized research unit. CTI is closely allied with UCI's curricular program in critical theory.

Every three to four years, CTI organizes research projects focusing on a particular theme. Around this theme, CTI organizes several presentations and discussions of work of both CTI members and invited guests in its Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory series. Past themes have included "Politics, Theory, and Contemporary Culture" and "Forces of Globalization." Books are compiled after the research projects are complete and have included many of the Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory.

Since 1981 CTI has sponsored the Wellek Library Lectures, an annual lecture series named in honor of Professor Emeritus René Wellek (Yale University), whose papers and library of works in critical theory are housed at UCI's Special Collections and Archives. Each year CTI invites internationally distinguished critical theorist to deliver a series of three lectures at UCI in which he or she develops a critical position and relates it to the contemporary theoretical scene.

Biographical/Historical note

• 1982 - 1985 : The Aims of Representation
• 1985 - 1988 : The States of "Theory"
• 1988 - 1991 : Politics, Theory, and Contemporary Culture
• 1991 - 1995 : "Culture" and the Problem of the Disciplines
• 1995 - 1999 : Forces of Globalization
• 1999 - 2003 : Futures of Property and Personhood
• 2003 - 2008 : In Security
• 2008 - 2012 : Poor Theory

Biographical/Historical note

• 1981: Bloom, Harold. "The Breaking of the Vessels: In Defense of Antithetical Criticism"
• 1982: Anderson, Perry. "In the Tracks of Historical Materialism"
• 1983: Kermode, Frank. "Forms of Attention"
• 1984: Derrida, Jacques. "Mémoires: Three Lectures for Paul de Man"
• 1985: Miller, J. Hillis. "The Ethics of Reading"
• 1986: Lyotard, Jean-François. "The Law, the Form, the Event"
• 1987: Marin, Louis. "Pascalian Propositions for Today"
• 1988: Krieger, Murray. "A Reopening of Closure: Organicism Against Itself"
• 1989: Said, Edward. "Musical Elaborations"
• 1990: Cixous, Hélène. "Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing"
• 1991: Jameson, Fredric. "The Constraints of the Postmodern"
• 1992: Hartman, Geoffrey. "Three on 'Culture'"
• 1993: Keller, Evelyn Fox. "Metaphors of Twentieth-Century Biology"
• 1994: Iser, Wolfgang. "Variables of Interpretation: Iterations of Translatability"
• 1995: Krauss, Rosalind. "Formless: A Feat"
• 1996: Balibar, Etienne. "On Politics and History: Presence, Cruelty and the Universals"
• 1997: Harootunian, Harry. "History's Disquiet: Modernity and Everyday Life"
• 1998: Butler, Judith. "Antigone's Claim: Kinship, Aberration and Psychoanalysis"
• 1999: Baudrillard, Jean. "The Vital Illusion"
• 2000: Spivak, Gayatri. "The New Comparative Literature"
• 2001: Bhabha, Homi. "Scrambled Eggs and a Dish of Rice"
• 2002: Gilroy, Paul. "Elements of Post-colonial Melancholia"
• 2003: Davis, Angela. "Lectures on Abolition"
• 2004: Mbembe, Achille. "The Political Life of Sovereignty"
• 2005: Harveym, David. "Geographical Knowledges / Political Powers"
• 2006: Asad, Talal. "Thinking about Suicide Bombing"
• 2007: Grosz, Elizabeth. "Chaos, Territory, Art"
• 2008: Scoot, Joan W. "Politics and Academic Freedom"
• 2009: Deutsche, Rosalyn. "Hiroshima after Iraq: Three Studies in Art and War"
• 2010: Thiongʾo, Ngũgĩ wa. "The Hegelian Lord and Colonial Bondsman: Literature and the Politics of Knowing"

From the guide to the Critical Theory Institute audio and video recordings, University of California, Irvine, 1987-2008, (Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries)