[On March 9-10, 2012, the British Modernities Group (BMG) held its annual graduate student conference, “Modern Brains: Literary Studies and the Cognitive Sciences.” The following was written by Katherine Skwarczek, a BMG member who attended the conference.]Written by Katherine Skwarczek (English)...

Duvivier 1934[On Monday, March 12, 2012, Margaret Flinn, (French, Media & Cinema Studies), gave the Unit for Criticism’s annual faculty lecture titled "1930s 'Banlieutopia' and the Films of Julien Duvivier". Below is a response from Cameron Riopelle, a graduate student in Sociology]“Cinema and the Curious Property of Heterotopia”...

Title page of Bacon's Instauration Magna (1620). The Latin inscription at the bottom reads "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." [On Friday, March 2, 2012, John Unsworth, former Dean of the Graduate School for Library and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, spoke at...

A frame from Erykah Badu's video "Window Seat" (2010) [On Friday March 2, Lawrence Grossberg spoke at a CAS MillerComm lecture hosted by the Institute for Communications Research. In the following post guest blogger Rober Mejia describe Grossberg's lecture while also discussing the keynote lecture at the March 2-3...

A kosher provisions shop at 183 Brick Lane in East London (1910)[On February 20, 2012, the Unit for Criticism co-organized a workshop with the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, “New Cities for New Jews: Zionist Utopia, Fantasy and the Modern Ur Landscape,” led by...

Federal troops occupying line of breastworks on the north bank of the North Anna River in Virgina (1864) [This post from Justine Murison (English) is the last in our series of comments from the closing roundtable at the Unit's February 10 ...

[Walter Benn Michaels (UIC), one of the speakers at the Unit for Criticism's 2/10 symposium, The Ends of History, responds to recent posts by Ezra Claverie and Ben Bascom]I had a good time at and learned a lot from the “Ends of History” symposium, especially in the discussions between the papers, so it’s great...

[On February 10, 2012, the Unit for Criticism partnered with the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture, & Society for a symposium, The Ends of History. The below contribution is from Ezra Claverie. It is the...

Henry Adams, 1875[On February 10, 2012, the Unit for Criticism partnered with the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture, & Society for a symposium, The Ends of History. The below contribution is from Ben Bascom. It is...

Honoré de Balzac by Louis-Auguste Bisson, 1842.[On February 10, 2012, the Unit for Criticism partnered with the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture, & Society for a symposium, The Ends of History. Below are remarks from...

A covered arcade in 19th-century Paris.[On February 10, 2012, the Unit for Criticism partnered with the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture, & Society for a symposium, The Ends of History. Below are remarks from...

[On February 10, 2012, the Unit for Criticism partnered with the Trowbridge Office on American Literature, Culture, & Society for a symposium, The Ends of History. Published below are the symposium's...

Projected European Coastal Changes after a Rise in Sea Level[Below Michael Verderame, a graduate student affiliate in English and recipient of a Unit for Criticism travel grant last fall, writes about his recent experience at a panel on climate change and the humanities at the 2012 Modern Language Association annual convention.]The...

Dear Colleagues,As my previous mails may have already suggested, there is much good news afoot for the Unit for Criticism! Last week we launched our new Criticism & Interpretive Theory fellowship program (deadline 3/2); and our...

[On Monday, December 5, the Unit for Criticism held the second of its Fall 2011 Author’s Roundtables. The Unit hosted Kathryn Lofton to discuss her book Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon. The below contribution is from Sarah Moon Cassinelli.]“This Oprah is maybe not your Oprah:” personal narrative and commodity in Oprah’s world-...