Since 1981, the Critical Theory Institute has sponsored an annual lecture series, named in honor of René Wellek (Yale University), whose library of works in critical theory is housed in Langson Library at the University of California, Irvine.

Each year, we have invited an internationally distinguished critical theorist to visit the campus to deliver a series of three lectures in which he or she develops his or her critical position and relates it to the contemporary theoretical scene. Each set of lectures is generally published in the Columbia university Press Wellek Library Lectures series.

For Wellek Library Lecturer Bibliographies and other Series information (1981-2009), click on this link.

 

Rey Chow

2023

 

Rey Chow — Professor of Literature, Duke University

 

"Guests, Voices, and other Ephemera: Intimations from some Filmworks about Asia"

 

Mahmoud Mamdani

 

2021

Mahmoud Mamdani — Professor of Government, Columbia University

 

"Studying Trans-African Slaveries: Pitfalls of the Atlantic Model"

 

 

Georges Didi-Huberman

2019

Georges Didi-Huberman — École des hautes études en Sciences Sociales, Paris


"How Try Tell? A Short Journey in the Papers of the Warsaw Ghetto"

Wendy Brown

2018


Wendy Brown — Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

 

"Authoritarian Liberalism and Moral Nihilism: Neoliberalism's Accidental Legacies"

Aijaz Ahmand

2017

 

Aijaz AhmadUniversity of California, Irvine Chancellor's Professor


"The Return of the Repressed: Figurations of the National"

Katherine Hayles

2016


 


Katherine Hayles — Duke University

"Precarious Narratives: The Risky Behaviors of Print Books No Longer Able to Tell Coherent Stories"

Catherine Malabou

2015

 


Catherine Malabou - European Graduate School


"Metamorphoses of Intelligence"

Timothy Morton

2014


 

Timothy Morton  Rice University

 

"Dark Ecology: For a logic of future coexistence"

Peter Sloterdijk

2013

 

Peter Sloterdijk


"Bastards, or: Self-made men and women. Reflections on genealogical disorders as a source of modern culture."

Bruno Latour

2012


Bruno LatourProfessor, Institut d'études politques de Paris

 

Donna Haraway

2011

 

Donna Haraway Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz
 


"Playing Cat's Cradle with Companion Species"

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

2010


Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

 


"The Hegelian Lord and Colonial Bondsman: Literature and the Politics of Knowing"

 

Past Lectures

Rosalyn Deutsche

2009


 

Rosalyn Deutsche Art History, Barnard College
 


"Hiroshima after Iraq: Three Studies in Art and War"

Joan Scott

2008

 


Joan W. Scott Harold F. Linder Professor, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton


"Politics and Academic Freedom"

Elizabeth Grosz

2007

Elizabeth Grosz Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers, The State Univerisity of New Jersey, New Brunswick

"Chaos, Territory, Art"

Talal Asad

2006


 

Talal Asad Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center


"Thinking about Suicide Bombing" 

David Harvey

2005


 

David Harvey Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center


"Geographical Knowledges/Political Powers"

Achille Mbembe

2004

 


Achille Mbembe Institute for Social & Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand 


"The Political Life of Sovereignty"

Angela Davis

2003


Angela Davis— Professor Emerita History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz)

"Lectures on Abolition"

Paul Gilroy

2002


 

Paul GilroySociology & African American Studies, Yale University


“Elements of Post-colonial melancholia”

Homi Bhabha

2001



Homi BhabhaEnglish & Afro-American Studies, Harvard University

“The Quasi-Colonial: Scrambled Eggs and a Dish of Rice”

Gayatri Spivak

2000


 

Gayatri SpivakEnglish and Comparative Literature, Columbia

“The New Comparative Literature.”

 

Jean Baudrillard

1999


 

Jean Baudrillard

The Vital Illusion.”

Judith Butler

1998


 

Judith ButlerRhetoric, UC, Berkeley

“Antigone's Claim: Kinship, Aberration and Psychoanalysis”

Harry Harootunian

1997


 

Harry HarootunianEast Asian Studies, History, New York University)


“History's Disquiet: Modernity and Everyday Life.”

Etienne Balibar

1996

 

Étienne BalibarPhilosophie, Politique et Morale, U. Paris-X, Nanterre

“On Politics and History: Presence, Cruelty and the Universals”

Rosalind Krauss

1995

 

 

Rosalind KraussArt History, Columbia University

“Formless: A Feat.” 

Wolfgang Iser

1994


 

Wolfgang Iser English & Comparative Literature, UC Irvine


“Variables of Interpretation: Iterations of Translatability.” 

Evelyn Fox Keller

1993



Evelyn Fox KellerRutgers


“Metaphors of Twentieth- Century Biology.” 

Geoffrey Hartman

1992

 

Geoffrey HartmanEnglish and Comparative Literature, Yale University


“Three on ‘Culture.’” 

Frederik Jameson

1991

 

 

Fredric JamesonLiterature, Critical Theory, Duke University

“The Constraints of the Postmodern.”

Helene Cixous

1990


 

Hélène CixousWriter and Professor, University of Paris, VIII

“Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing.”

 

 

Edward Said

1989


 

Edward SaidEnglish, Columbia


“Musical Elaborations.”

Murray Krieger

1988

 

 

Murray KriegerEnglish and Comparative Literature, UC Irvine

“A Reopening of Closure: Organicism Against Itself.” 

Louis Marin

1987

 

Louis MarinEcole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris


“Pascalian Propositions for Today.”

Jean-Francois Lyotard

1986

 

Jean-François LyotardFrench & Italian, UC Irvine

“The Law, the Form, the Event.” 

J. Hillis Miller

1985

 

J. Hillis MillerEnglish and Comparative Literature, Yale University

“The Ethics of Reading.” 

Jacques Derrida

1984

 

Jacques Derrida (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales)

“Mémoires: Three Lectures for Paul de Man.” 

Frank Kermode

1983

 

Frank KermodeFellow, King’s College, Cambridge; Visiting Professor Columbia University

“Forms of Attention.” 

Perry Anderson

1982


 

Perry AndersonHistorian, Historical Sociologist; Editor, New Left Review


“In the Tracks of Historical Materialism.” 

Harold Bloom

1981


Harold BloomEnglish and Comparative Literature, Yale


“The Breaking of the Vessels: In Defense of Antithetical Criticism.”