Projects template

The Critical Theory Institute's current project (begun in the fall of 2003) devotes itself to the implications of the play between security and insecurity. Insofar as the social warrants itself as a means of ordering and controlling individuals, groups, societies, and nations, security looms large in defining our social existence. According to Hobbes and Foucault, security is deeply constitutive of modernity itself, coming to mark the difference between modern social orders from all that lies outside them - the "dark ages," the "non-western" or "pre-colonial," or the chaos" beyond the rule of law (both juridical and scientific). That security has come of late to be the focus of so much desperate attention should be seen as a sign of a deeper crisis in how the social currently is being conceived and challenged. Given that socio-economic, political, epistemological, and psychological forms of security are interdependent, this crisis cuts across all levels of modern systems of order. [Full Project Description]

Irvine Lectures in Critical Theory:

Eyal Weizman (Center for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University London)
"Lethal Theory"
November 8, 2006

Inderpal Grewal (Women's Studies, UC Irvine)
"'The Security Mom': Neolibral Subjects of U.S. Imperialism"
February 8, 2006

Lisa Hajjar (Law & Sociology, UC Santa Barbara)
"What's the Matter with Yoo? - The Crime of Torture and the Role of Lawyers"
April 13, 2005

Mark Poster (History, UC Irvine)
"The Digital Self: Identity Theft and Security"
February 23, 2005

David Theo Goldberg (African American Studies, UC Irvine)
"Targets of Opportunity"
January 26, 2005

John H. Smith (German, UC Irvine)
"Critique of Secure Reason"
May 26, 2004

Joseph Masco (Anthropology, Chicago)
"Threat Assessments: The Nuclear State of Emergency"
May 12, 2004

Michael Dillon (Political Science and International Relations, University of Lancaster)
"Security, Life, Terror"
March 10, 2004