EVENT DETAILS

Crtical Theory Emphasis Undergraduate Conference - Event 1

Organized by the Koehn Fellow 2011-2012 Timothy Wong.
Event 1: title Critical theory at the Present Time: Undergraduate Conference
May 3rd 10:00 - 4:45 p.m. Humanities Gateway 1010

Sponsored by: Critical Theory Emphasis, UC Humanities Research Institute, The International Center for Writing and Translation, The Center for Law Culture and Society, The Department of Comparative Literature, The Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Department of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, The Department of English, Department of Studio Art, UCI French Program, UCI German Program, Program in Jewish Studies, and Postmodern Culture.

The University of California, Irvine has been at the forefront of critical theory for decades. The Critical Theory Institute has had notable members such as Jacques Derrida, Wolfgang Iser, Gayatri Spivak, and J. Hillis Miller. The CTI sponsored Wellek Library Lectures have featured internationally recognized scholars like Jean-François Lyotard, Edward Said, Fredric Jameson, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and Étienne Balibar. The Critical Theory Emphasis hosts a wealth of intellectual talent, with many affiliated faculty across UC Irvine, and it also provides an advanced graduate curriculum to encourage interdisciplinary theoretical conversations. Beyond this, the CTE offers outstanding undergraduates the opportunity to work closely with graduate student mentors, polishing conference papers to present at the annual Critical Theory Undergraduate Conference. This year’s conference will feature eighteen brilliant undergraduates from several disciplines. The conference will conclude with a special faculty roundtable discussion followed by a catered reception.


Recent budget cuts have not left the Critical Theory Emphasis and the Critical Theory Institute untouched, and the closing event will be an opportunity to discuss institutional difficulties that the cuts have created. More importantly, though, this conference will be a venue to demonstrate the resilience of the academic/critical theory community at UC Irvine. The four undergraduate panels and the closing faculty panel have brought together eighteen undergraduate students, fourteen graduate mentors, and nine participating faculty. The event has also received sponsorship from faculty, departments, programs, and academic centers across the School of Humanities, the School of Arts, the School of Social Sciences, and the Law School. The coming together of this diverse community will also allow us to discuss the scholarly aspects of critical theory: What is critical theory? How do we, as scholars from different disciplines, engage with critical theory? In what ways does critical theory allow different disciplines to speak with each other? What is included and excluded from critical theory? What has been the history of critical theory? What is its future? What is it at the present moment?


The conference will begin, as it traditionally has, with several panels featuring undergraduate papers in critical theory. Please come to these panels! Although I expect that the closing panel will draw the most spectators, I do not want to sideline the undergraduates; they are the true centerpieces of this conference, and are part of the rich community of critical theory affiliates.

Also, please plan to stay for the event reception. Sponsors gave generously so that the event could have food and drinks, and allow the conversations that begin during the closing panel to continue in a more informal setting.


Tim Wong, Koehn Fellow in Critical Theory

Critical Theory at the Present Time

10:00 – 11:15, HG1010: The City and the University

Ana Baginski, Miranda Milke, Kelly Novahom, Candice Perez, Sam Cohen, Martin Schwab

11:30 – 12:45, HG1010: Critical Theory and the Canon

Genna Conrad, Joe Hong, Sacharose Robbins, Connie Huang, Asia Hodges, Tim Wong, Julia Lupton

12:45 – 1:30, HG1030 : Lunch

1:30 – 3:00, HG1010: Mythmaking and Alternative Media

Earl Faust, Paul McEldowny, Ilyssa Russ, Tristan Schlozt, Vuslat Demirkoparan, David Pan

3:15 – 4:45, HG1010: Cinema and Subjectivity

Melanie Hansen, Michael Ko, Morgan Slade, Saniya Taher, Nasser Mufti, Rei Terada