About the CTI

The Critical Theory Institute is an interdisciplinary, collaborative research group, with an average of 15 to 20 active members from various UCI departments in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The CTI began in the early 1980s as an informal reading group and, since 1987, has operated as a UCI organized research unit. The CTI operates as an independent, non-curricular research institute. However, the CTI is closely allied with UCI’s curricular program in critical theory, the Critical Theory Emphasis program. For instance, various CTI members serve or have served on the Emphasis core committee, many have taught advanced courses in the Emphasis, or directed its annual critical theory workshop. More information on the Emphasis is available at (949) 824-6720 or showler@uci.edu.

Begun largely in response to extraordinary changes in the “human sciences,” both in terms of methodological complexity and interdisciplinary orientation, the CTI seeks to bring about a confrontation among the disciplines with the aim of furthering their mutual transformation.

The CTI proceeds by defining research projects in critical theory that are addressed for three-to four-year periods through organized discussions of pertinent theoretical work and specific events such as the Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory series. Contributors to this series include CTI members and solicited critical theory specialists. Our research, including many of the papers resulting from the ILCT, is then published in our CTI Project series, currently with Columbia UP. Our Work-in-Progress series provides an additional forum in which to engage the work of CTI members on their current individual research.

Our main annual event, the Wellek Library Lectures, features major figures who are shaping the direction of contemporary critical theory. The CTI publishes these lectures in its Wellek Library Lecture series, also currently with Columbia UP.

In addition to our ILCT series and Wellek Lectures, the CTI offers various other events open to the public, including lectures by international guest speakers and research fellows, periodic mini-conferences and workshops, among other activities. Throughout each academic year, the CTI co-sponsors a number of public lectures and conferences with various UCI Departments and Programs. More detailed information is available on our Projects + Events page. For the most recent information concerning upcoming lectures and other events open to the public, please see our calendar.

Further elaboration is available in our statement of purpose.

Acknowledgements:
The CTI gratefully acknowledges support from the following:
The University of California, Humanities Dean’s Office
The University of California, Research and Graduate Studies

For support for particular events and activities, we would like to thank the following:
The Michael Koehn Wellek Library Lecture Endowment
The National Endowment for the Humanities for “Bridging the Gaps” (1995-1997)
The Vice Chancellor for Student Services, University of California, Irvine for
graduate student participation in “Bridging the Gaps” (1995-1997)

And for generous support for our Derrida/Deleuze conference we thank:
Antoine Châtelet, Adjoint Cultural Attaché, French Consulate of Los Angeles; Critical Theory Archive; Humanities Center; Humanities Research Institute; Office of Research and Graduate Studies; Russian Studies Program; theUC Irvine Libraries and the International Center for Writing & Translation for sponshorship of thepanel, Translating/Politics.