Kritik Blog

"We All Get Sick and Die" Written by Dr. Catherine Prendergast (UIUC, English) “We all Get Sick and Die.” That used to be the subtitle of my courses in disability studies. It announced that disability studies demands a shift in our frame of reference with regard to bodies, away from a presumption of their invulnerability. I promised students that when they left the class, they would either...

[On Tuesday, November 10, Dr. Sean Metzger (Theater, Film & Television, UCLA) presented a lecture on Queer Theory as part of the Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Joe Coyle (Anthropology, UIUC) Thinking Queer Theory Transnationally and Geopolitically Joe Coyle (Anthropology, UIUC) Sean Metzger’s Modern Critical Theory Lecture on queer theory traced important...

[On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, Dr. Jenny Sharpe presented a lecture on Postcolonial Theory as part of the Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Ji Hyea Hwang (Comparative & World Literature, UIUC).] Postcolonial Theory and Western Humanism Ji Hyea Hwang (Comparative & World Literature, UIUC)   In this lecture, Sharpe provided an overview of postcolonial...

[On Tuesday, October 6, 2020, Dr. Alexander G. Weheliye presented a lecture on Biopolitics as part of the Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Austin Hoffman (Anthropology, UIUC)] Black Feminism and the (Re)Making of Biopolitics Written by Austin Hoffman “Traveling theories, particularly those supposedly transparent and universal soldiers in Man’s philosophical army,...

[On Tuesday, September 15, 2020, Dr. Jeffrey T. Martin presented a lecture on Structuralism as part of the Modern and Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Sabrina Yun-Che Lee (English, UIUC)] Structuralism's Promise and Peril Written by Sabrina Yun-Che Lee In the half-century-long wake of poststructuralism, structuralism often seems merely...

[On Tuesday, September 8, 2020, Dr. Timothy Brennan presented a talk on Marx and Marxism as part of the Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Aidan Watson-Morris (English).] Timothy Brennan’s New Marxist Materialism, Same as the Old Written by Aidan Watson-Morris Karl Marx’s claim that our thinking is...

[On Tuesday, September 1, 2020, Dr. Lucy Allais presented a talk on German Idealism as part of the Modern Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Dr. Michael Uhall (Political Science).] Occupy Kant: Remarks on Racism and Liberalism Written by Dr. Michael Uhall Digitally...

[On Thursday, February 27, 2020, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory hosted a Nicholson Distinguished Scholar Lecture "The Idea of a Moral and Reparatory History of New World Slavery" by Professor David Scott (Anthropology, Columbia). Below is a response by Grazzia Grimaldi (Anthropology).] Written by Grazzia Grimaldi What is the conceptual story of the past of New World slavery that...

[On March 7, 2020, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory hosted a film screening of Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha (1962) by visiting scholar Moinak Biswas (Film Studies, Jadavpur University). Below is a response by Susmita Das (Institute of Communications Research).] Thinking (and Teaching) History through Film Form Written by Susmita Das (Institute of Communications Research) As...

[On February 3, 2020, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory hosted a Distinguished Faculty Lecture "Nine Days of One Year: Soviet 1960s Cinema and the Nuclear Catastrophe" by Professor Lilya Kaganovsky (Slavic, Comparative Literature, and Cinema and Media Studies). Below is a response by Erin Cheslow (English).] Memory's Gaze: Lilya Kaganovsky on 1960s Soviet Film, Trauma, and...

[On February 3, 2020 the Unit Criticism and Interpretive Theory hosted a Distinguished Faculty lecture "Nine Days of One Year: Soviet 1960s Cinema and the Nuclear Catastrophe" by Professor Lilya Kaganovsky (Slavic, Comparative Literature, and Cinema and Media Studies). Below is a response by Professor Brett Kaplan (HGMS/CWL).] Response to Lilya Kaganovsky's lecture "Nine Days in One...

[On November 26, 2019, Professor Clara Bosak-Schroeder (Classics) presented a talk on Ecocriticism as part of the Modern and Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Mark E. Frank (East Asian Languages and Cultures.)] Diversity in Ecocriticism Written by Mark E. Frank (East Asian Languages and Cultures) Toward the beginning of Professor Bosak-Schroeder’s talk on ecocriticism she put...

[On November 12, 2019, Professor Toby Beauchamp (GWS) presented a talk on Queer Theory as part of the Modern and Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Nadia Hoppe (Slavic Languages and Literatures)] Written by Nadia Hoppe (Slavic Languages and Literatures) On November 12th, 2019, Professor Toby Beauchamp delivered a lecture on Queer and Trans Theory as part of the Fall 2019...

[On October 18, 2019 Professor Louise Meintjes (Music and Cultural Anthropology, Duke) gave a lecture titled “Audible Africanity: Ululation in Popular Music” at the School of Music. Below is a response by Ian Nutting (Ethnomusicology)] Schizophonic Mimetic Loops and Soundings from the Global South Written by Ian Nutting (Ethnomusicology) Drawing on the ethnographic work done for her 2017 book...

[On October 22, 2019 Professor Patricai Nguyen (Asian American Studies, Northwestern) presented a talk on Critical Race Theory as part of the Modern and Critical Theory Lecture Series. Below is a response by Aida Guhlincozzi (Geography and GIScience)] Critical Race Theory and Reparations Come Together in Chicago Written by Aida Guhlincozzi (Geography and GIScience) The MCT Critical race lecture...