Since 1981, the School of Humanities and UCI Critical Theory have 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 Special Collections at the University of California, Irvine.
Each year, we invite an internationally distinguished critical theorist to visit the campus to deliver a series of three lectures in which they develop their critical position and relate it to the contemporary theoretical scene. All past Wellek Lectures are listed on this webpage.
Each set of lectures is generally published in the Columbia University Press Wellek Library Lectures series.
The Wellek Library Lectures were generously supported by Dr. Michael Koehn from 2001 to 2005.