• Between Fear and Sanctuary
    Written by Kevin Healey, Institute for Communications ResearchEditor's Note: This post is part of a summer-long series that includes the writing of Kevin Healey (Communications) and Martha Webber (English) as they attend Cornell's SCT (School of Criticism and Theory) during the summer of 2008. As always...
  • Wanting it Now: Academic Composition and Returning to the Theory/Practice Question
    Written by Martha Webber, English and Writing StudiesOn faculty this summer at the School of Criticism and Theory, Elizabeth Povinelli, professor of anthropology and gender studies at Columbia University,...
  • The Heat in FLB
    Written by Lilya Kaganovsky, Slavic and Comparative LiteratureThose of you who do not work in the Foreign Languages Building may not be aware of a perennial problem, known over email by the subject heading “The heat in FLB.” This subject line generally precedes a message about the heating system’s failure—either to...
  • Abandoning the “Pornography of Violence"
    Written by Kevin Healey, Institute for Communications ResearchEditor's Note: This post is part of a summer-long series that includes the writing of Kevin Healey (Communications) and Martha Webber (English) as they attend Cornell's SCT (School of Criticism and Theory) during the summer of 2008. As always...
  • Crisis of the Humanities?
    Written by Michael Rothberg, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive TheoryIs there a crisis of the humanities? If so, how do we characterize it and what can we do about it? If not, why is the rhetoric of crisis so persistent?Duke University Romance Studies scholar Roberto...
  • Palimpsests of Memory?
    Written by Kevin Healey, Institute for Communications ResearchEditor's Note: This post is part of a summer-long series that includes the writing of Kevin Healey (Communications) and Martha Webber (English) as they attend Cornell's SCT (School of Criticism and Theory) during the summer of 2008. As always...
  • Meeting Toni Negri: Introduction to “Antonio Negri: A Revolt that Never Ends”
    Written by Emanuel Rota, Spanish, Italian, and PortugueseI met the Italian philosopher Toni Negri in his apartment a couple of weeks ago. Around the walls there were the usual books that make up the living space of a university professor, plus some memorabilia of his past and present as a revolutionary intellectual: posters, leaflets, paintings....
  • Announcement: The Race for Theory
    Written by Rhino Grubs, Department of Wildlife StudiesWe are pleased to announce:The 1st Annual Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory Road Race: The Race for Theory#1: The "Marx"; you have nothing to lose but your love handles! A 5K run isn't easy—but it isn't that hard, either. Good for beginners who want to stay...
  • Cinema on the iPhone
    Written by Robert Rushing, Comparative Literature and Italian Michael keeps sending me pieces from the Chronicle of Higher Education, and a recent one by Thomas Doherty, entitled "Celluloid Under Siege" (April 18, 2008), makes two claims about what's happening to cinema...
  • Secular Collectivity
    Written by Michael Rothberg, Unit for Criticism[This short piece was originally presented at the “Erich Auerbach and the Future of Criticism” conference on April 18, 2008 here at Illinois as part of a roundtable on “Auerbach and Edward Said.” The other panelists...
  • Globalizing Marginality: Spatial Politics of 21st Century Mumbai
    Editor's Note: This paper is from the recent Megacities: Agglomerating Culures, Media, and Infrastructures panel sponsored by the Unit for Criticism. Written by Ravi Ghadge, Sociology I am convinced that a historic opportunity for the revamping of Mumbai presents itself before us today. Mumbai can emerge as a new financial capital of Asia, and be the bridge between Asia and the...
  • How the West Was Not One
    Written by Jodi Byrd, American Indian Studies, EnglishAfter thirty years of existing within the academy, American Indian Studies is still not quite yet at critical mass, but headed in that direction. Often, the field is perceived by those within and without its purview as a project of recovery, culture, identity, polemic—let's be honest—and...
  • The Impossible Middlebrow
    Written by Robert Rushing, Comparative and World LiteratureIn a recent article (you'll need a subscription to read, however) in the Chronicle of Higher Education, David Shumway wonders why filmmaker John Sayles hasn't gotten much attention in the academy. So why doesn't...
  • Three Scenarios of American Decline
    Written by Jan Nederveen Pieterse, SociologyThe question now is not whether the US is declining but what form decline will take and whether it will be mild or severe. Does it refer to the economy, to hegemony or to overall decline? Decline isn’t necessarily negative. It’s a relief for Americans who feel besieged by war prone...
  • All About The West
    Written by Michael Rothberg, Director of the Unit for CriticismMy primary hope for Kritik has been that it would provoke a new forum for discussion among people in and beyond Illinois about the important theoretical, political, and cultural issues that we face. With that goal in mind, I’m very pleased about the...