Centre for Critical Theory

An interdisciplinary approach to critical theory and cultural studies today

The Centre for Critical Theory and Cultural Studies builds on over thirty years of excellence in critical theory and related fields at the University of Nottingham and draws on established expertise across seven schools and three faculties at the university. Bringing a range of critical approaches to bear on the study of contemporary society, politics, and culture, the work of the Centre is characterised by the rigour of its theoretical practice and the interdisciplinary spirit of its engagement with other fields of research.
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Key aims and expertise

The Centre for Critical Theory and Cultural Studies offers a friendly environment in which researchers, cultural practitioners, activists and others interested in the exercise of critical thinking can work together to develop research, organise intellectual encounters, exchange ideas, and facilitate the generation of collaborative approaches to theory production.

 

Projects

Neither Use Nor Ornament: A Cultural Biography of Clutter and Procrastination Tracey Potts

Current research

Sensory Studies

 

Ecologies and Aesthetics

 

Institutional Analysis and Anti-Psychiatry

 
The Critical and the Clinical
 
Theory and Modernity
 

 

Past activities

'Noise in a Tropical Underground: Global and Situated Aesthetics in Experimental Music on Java', Sanne Krogh Groth (7th November 2018):

As part of the Centre for Critical Theory and Cultural Studies' research strand on Sensory Studies, we welcome Sanne Krogh Groth from Lund University in Sweden where she is an associate professor in musicology. Her research explores historiographic, aesthetic, political and institutional issues within the fields of contemporary music, electronic music, sound and performance art in the 20th and 21st Centuries. In this talk, which takes place in room B4 of the Trent Building at 5pm on the 7th of November, she will discuss global and situated aesthetics in experimental music on the Indonesian island of Java. 

'Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online', Crystal Abidin (24th October 2018):

In support of the Digital Cultures Research Network, we welcomed Dr Crystal Abidin all the way from Deakin University in Australia where she is a Lecturer in Communication. Dr Abidin is a digital anthropologist and we invited her to give a talk about her most recent book, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online which takes a truly global perspective on viral stars, meme personalities and 'influencers' on social media. 

The Nottingham-Dublin Lacanian Studies Series, Geert Hoornaert (20th October 2018):

The penultimate meeting in the Nottingham-Dublin Lacanian Studies Series saw Geert Hoornaert, a psychoanalyst who teaches at Ghent and works at Le Courtil, taking us through his reading of Lacan's fifth seminar based on the concept of the 'sense of life' during the workshop in the morning. In the afternoon, Geert offered constructions of three cases which showed how flexible and adaptable psychoanalysis needs to be in the diverse institutional spaces in which clinical work takes place today. 

The Nottingham-Dublin Lacanian Studies Series, Martine Coussot (22nd September 2018):

For the fourth instalment of the Nottingham-Dublin Lacanian Studies series we invited Martine Coussot, who is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst based in Poitiers in France, to offer her interpretation of chapters 15-19 of Lacan's Seminar V, entitled Formations of the Unconscious. Her reading took us from Lacan's revisions of the notion of the phallus to his clinical observations about the 'masks of the symptom'. In the afternoon, three clinical cases presented by practicing psychoanalysts were discussed.   

Research team

Dr Colin Wright, Director Dr Fernanda Amaral Dr Hongwei Bao Dr Adam Bingham Dr Jen Birks Dr Ting Chang Dr Peter Conlin Dr Chrysi Dagoula Dr Andrew Goffey Dr Xing Huang Prof Jeremy Lane Professor James Mansell Dr Franziska Meyer Dr Daniel Mutibwa Professor George Ogola Dr Tracey Potts Dr Julian Stringer

The Centre works in collaboration with an international advisory board and extensive wider membership.

We welcome the participation of researchers, creative and cultural practitioners, activists and writers, and engaged, critical individuals both inside and outside academia in any of the Centre's activities.

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Centre for Critical Theory

The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD



email:critical-theory@nottingham.ac.uk