Theory Now: Practices, Predicaments, and Possibilities

Keynote: Thursday, April 10, 5:00–7:30pm
International House, 1414 E. 59th St.
Registration required

Panels: Friday, April 11, 9:30am–6:30pm
Swift Lecture Hall, 1025 E. 58th St.
Registration recommended

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Please join us to celebrate twenty years of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago.

Our anniversary conference opens with a keynote from Judith Butler and continues with a day of panels featuring 3CT fellows in dialogue with friends of the center. Together, they will address questions such as: Where does theory come from? What are the boundaries between the university and the world in which theory is produced? Given our corporatized and increasingly besieged university, how urgent is theory? More generally, how does theory help us understand the dizzying combination of information overload, threats to democracy, extractive capitalism, climate disaster, ongoing genocide in plain sight, deepening authoritarianism, and the myriad efforts to continue political struggle?

Raising these questions demands an account of the aesthetic, affective, and psychodynamic dimensions of our times. These themes beckon us to problematize the relationship between theory and practice without neglecting the racialized, gendered, and class dynamics inherent to theorizing. Who gets to do theory and why might this matter for our understandings of the world? Who is this “we” anyway?

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Conference schedule

THURSDAY, APRIL 10
International House

5:00pm
Welcome: Amanda Woodward and Lisa Wedeen
Keynote: Judith Butler, "Destroyed Protections for Extra-Mural Speech"

FRIDAY, APRIL 11
Swift Lecture Hall

9:30–10:00am
Coffee and breakfast

10:00–11:30am
Locations and Temporalities of Theory
Neil Brenner, Rosalind C. Morris, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Linda Zerilli
Moderator: William T. S. Mazzarella

11:45am–1:15pm
Race and Theory
Adrienne Brown, Jodi Byrd, Ryan Jobson
Moderator: Cathy J. Cohen

1:15–2:15pm
Lunch

2:15–3:45pm
What is theory for?
Bill Brown, Anita Chari, Rochona Majumdar, Gabriel Winant
Moderator: Julian Go

4:00–5:30pm
Closing roundtable
Judith Butler, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Anton Ford, Adom Getachew, Lisa Wedeen

5:30–6:30pm
Reception

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This event is free and open to the public. Please email us at ccct@uchicago.edu if you require any accommodations to enable your full participation.

The keynote is co-sponsored by International House Global Voices Program.