Theory Colloquium
The Theory Colloquium is a co-led graduate student organization that seeks to broaden the ongoing discussion of critical theories of literature, gender, race, and power. It is particularly interested in expanding the theoretical discourses surrounding these cultural domains and their intersections, and hosts a series of speakers each year, each of who shed new light on the meaning and uses of “Theory.” Past invited speakers for the Theory Colloquium include Joan Copjec (Brown) and Rey Chow (Duke). Our upcoming series on “Race, Memory, and Aesthetics” will focus on the work of Asian American scholars who theorize genealogies of imperialism, and attend to the far-reaching implications of racial melancholia and the politics of mourning. The keynote speakers for this series are David Eng (U Penn) and Sunny Xiang (Yale). For more information on the 2023-24 events or to get involved, please contact Paola Del Toro, Eliana Rozinov, or colloquium advisor Paul Nadal.
Past Events
Calvin Warren’s research interests are in the area of continental philosophy (particularly post-Heideggerian and nihilistic philosophy), Lacanian psychoanalysis, queer theory, Black philosophy, Afro-pessimism, and theology. Duke University Press published his first book, Ontological Terror: Blackness, Nihilism,…
- AffiliationAssociate Professor of African American Studies, Emory University
- AffiliationPresident, Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39
This talk contemplates the ripple effects of a seemingly bizarre episode in American history: the years of U.S. martial law in the territory of Hawai‘i when all residents were required to carry a gas mask. I frame U.S. gas mask policies between 1941-1945 as a means of habituating Hawai‘i civilians to militarized rule rather than as an…
Asian Americans are conventionally described as “middle-man minorities,” outside of dominant racial paradigms of white and Black, adjunct to white privilege and exempt from the brunt of systemic violence directed against Black people. Historical accounts trace the origins of the in-betweenness of Asian Americans to the…
Joan K. Copjec is an American philosopher, theorist, author, feminist, and prominent American Lacanian…
Professor Chow will discuss her recent book, A Face Drawn in Sand: Humanistic Inquiry and Foucault in the Present (Columbia University Press, 2021), with follow up discussion with the author.
Princeton affiliated attendees can be reimbursed for the purchase of the book.
This event is co-sponsored by the…
This event has been canceled.
Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left: A Q&A Discussion
Reception in the Thorp Library to follow talk.
Old English Scribbles: The Intersection of Materiality and Performativity
Reception in the Thorp Library to follow talk.
Meaning in Context
Applied Historical and Corpus Linguistics
Meaning in Language: A Computer's Perspective
Disciplines of Language
Co-sponsored by the Theory Colloquium and the Princeton University Graduate School.
- David Bellos, Department of Comparative Literature
- Emmanuel Bourbouhakis, Department of Classics
- Jeff Dolven, Department of English
- Christiane Fellbaum, Department of Computer Science
- Una Stonjić, Visiting Assistant Professor (FA18), Department of Philosophy--Princeton University
Lyric Thinking: Humanism, Poetry, Modernity
Please review introduction prior to talk. Introduction available from Mary Prokop ([email protected])
Reception in Thorp Library following talk.
Migrants and Truth Production, 1400-1700
A daylong conference on the significance of migration to the literary, cultural, and intellectual history of the early modern period, featuring a keynote from Christopher Wood, Professor of German at New York University.
A conversation with Paul North, Professor of German at Yale, about his 2015 study of Franz Kafkaâ's ZÃrau Aphorisms.
This event was a collaboration between our colloquium and Comparative Literature, German, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and the Theory Colloquium. Professor Balfour gave a lively presentation on the aesthetics of the sublime and inversion.
Affiliated Institution:
18th C./Romantic Studies…