Our general programming is open to all students, and fellows regularly engage with both undergraduate and graduate students through collaboration and pedagogy. These include courses related to the intellectual mission of the center, teach-ins on emergent social issues, and student-led initiatives.
Courses
Current/Upcoming
| Quarter | Course | Instructor | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2024 | Advanced Reading in Technoscience: Metabolism and Milieu | Joseph P. Masco | graduate |
| Spring 2024 | Through the Prism of an Intellectual Life | Daragh Grant | undergraduate |
| Spring 2024 | Introduction to Critical Social Theory | Julian Go | graduate |
| Spring 2024 | Hannah Arendt: From Kantian Aesthetics to the Practice of Political Judgment | Linda Zerilli | graduate |
| Spring 2024 | Collage | Bill Brown | graduate |
| Spring 2024 | Cinema and the Speculative Archive: Theory & Practice Seminar | Allyson Nadia Field & Christopher Harris | undergraduate/graduate |
| Spring 2024 | Special Topics in Criticism and Theory: Gender and Sexuality | Sianne Ngai | undergraduate |
| Spring 2024 | Marxist Literary Criticism: Fredric Jameson | Sianne Ngai | undergraduate |
| Spring 2024 | The United States in the 21st Century | Jonathan Levy | undergraduate |
Past
| Quarter | Course | Instructor | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2016 | Experimental Grad Seminar on Conspiracy/Theory | Joseph P. Masco | graduate |
| Spring 2017 | Trump 101 | William Mazzarella and Kaushik Sunder Rajan | undergraduate |
| Spring 2019 | Topics in Critical Theory: Populism and its Discontents | William Mazzarella | undergraduate |
| Winter 2020 | Topics in Critical Theory: Repurposing “Ideology” for the Present | Lisa Wedeen | undergraduate |
| Fall 2020 | Topics in Critical Theory: Constitutionalism and Rights | Kaushik Sunder Rajan | undergraduate |
| Spring 2021 | Anthropology of the Future | Shannon Lee Dawdy | undergraduate |
| Fall 2021 | Reconstructing Democracy: Tocqueville and Du Bois | Adom Getachew | undergraduate/graduate |
| Fall 2021 | The Assemblage Mode | Bill Brown | graduate |
| Fall 2021 | Contemporary Ethnographies of the Middle East | Lisa Wedeen | undergraduate/graduate |
| Fall 2021 | On Violence | Lisa Wedeen | graduate |
| Fall 2021 | Climate Change, History, and Social Theory | Neil Brenner and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson | graduate |
| Winter 2022 | Feminists Read the Greeks | Demetra Kasimis | undergraduate/graduate |
| Winter 2022 | Death and Being | Shannon Lee Dawdy | graduate |
| Winter 2022 | Paris: Social Sciences—Critical Theory | Kaushik Sunder Rajan and Lisa Wedeen | undergraduate |
| Spring 2022 | Interpretive Methods in the Social Sciences | Lisa Wedeen | graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Topics in Critical Theory: Magical Politics | William Mazzarella | undergraduate |
| Spring 2022 | Approaches to the History of Political Thought | Jennifer Pitts | graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Law and Empire | Jennifer Pitts | undergraduate/graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Archaeology of the Contemporary | Shannon Lee Dawdy | graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Charisma in the Age of Trumpism | William Mazzarella | graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Pulmonographies | Kaushik Sunder Rajan | graduate |
| Spring 2022 | Fanon, Fire, Love | Kaushik Sunder Rajan | graduate |
| Fall 2022 | Social theory, energy and capitalism | Neil Brenner | graduate |
| Fall 2022 | Property and the Public Interest | Chiara Cordelli and Jonathan Levy | undergraduate |
| Fall 2022 | Colloquium: The Humanities, the Human, and the Nonhuman | Dipesh Chakrabarty and François Hartog | graduate |
| Fall 2022 | Advanced Theories in Gender and Sexuality | Linda Zerilli and Helen Galvin Ross | undergraduate/graduate |
| Winter 2023 | Cities, Space, Power: Introduction to urban social science | Neil Brenner | undergraduate/graduate |
| Winter 2023 | Postcolonial and Decolonial History and Theory | Rochona Majumdar and Lisa Wedeen | undergraduate |
| Winter 2023 | Dis/Enchantments | William Mazzarella | graduate |
| Winter 2023 | Law’s Violence: Theoretical Foundations and Abolitionist Futures | Daniel Epstein | undergraduate |
| Winter 2023 | The Global History of Money | Jonathan Levy | graduate |
| Winter 2023 | The Future | Bill Brown | undergraduate |
| Winter 2023 | Theories of Temporality | Lisa Wedeen | graduate |
| Winter 2023 | Through the Prism of an Intellectual Life: Thinking through conversation in the ruins of empire | Daragh Grant | undergraduate |
| Spring 2023 | The Economy of Conspiracy | Demetra Kasimis | undergraduate/graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Colloquium: Subaltern Studies—Issues and Historiography | Dipesh Chakrabarty | graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Liberalism and Empire | Jennifer Pitts | undergraduate/graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Topics in Critical Theory: Magical Politics | William Mazzarella | undergraduate |
| Spring 2023 | Democracy and the Immigrant in Classical Greek Thought | Demetra Kasimis | undergraduate |
| Spring 2023 | Sylvia Wynter and the Decolonization of Political Theory | Adom Getachew, Linda Zerilli | graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Materialities | Bill Brown | graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Adam Smith’s Social and Political Thought | Jennifer Pitts | undergraduate/graduate |
| Spring 2023 | Charisma in the Age of Trumpism | William Mazzarella | graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Populism in the United States: Past and Present | Jonathan Levy, Michael Zakim | undergraduate/graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Cassandras: Truth-Telling in Times of Crisis | Demetra Kasimis | undergraduate/graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Aspirations of Justice | Kaushik Sunder Rajan | undergraduate/graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Colloquium: The Emergence of Capitalism | Jonathan Levy, William H. Sewell Jr. | graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Breathing Machines | Kaushik Sunder Rajan | graduate |
| Fall 2023 | Interpretive Methods in the Social Sciences | Lisa Wedeen | graduate |
| Winter 2024 | Paris: Social Sciences—Critical Theory | Demetra Kasimis, Jennifer Pitts, Lisa Wedeen | undergraduate |
| Winter 2024 | Anticipatory Knowledge | Joseph P. Masco | graduate |
| Winter 2024 | Topics in Critical Theory: Atmospherics | Joseph P. Masco | undergraduate |
| Winter 2024 | The Archive of Absence: Theories and Methodologies of Evidence | Allyson Nadia Field | graduate |
Opportunities
LOUNGE
3CT’s lounge on the first floor of Foster Hall is available for use by students, faculty, and other members of the university community. This comfortable and quiet spot offers flexible seating and desk space, as well as a reading area and kitchenette.
The lounge is typically reserved for 3CT classes and bookings Monday through Friday and open for drop-in use on Fridays, 10am–4pm.
Users may also reserve the room in advance for regular or one-off meetings, office hours, study sessions, or other individual or group usage.
Please contact 3CT staff for more information and to make a booking.
GRADUATE STUDENT FUND
Current University of Chicago graduate students enrolled in a PhD or MA program may apply for a grant of up to $1,000 to support work that is engaged with contemporary theory.
Applications for 2023–24 funding are not currently being accepted. Stay tuned for updates on 2024–25 funding in Winter/Spring 2024.
Student Programming
STUDENT-LED EVENTS
3CT offers opportunities for students to take the lead in initiating and organizing programming for the center, from conferences to small group discussions.
One such series, Future Café, is an experimental forum that encourages undergraduates to collectively imagine utopian possibilities and multi-generational futures. Students select topics and lead conversations about subjects such as climate change, post-capitalism, transportation, urbanism, and the future of intimacy.
Our annual Lauren Berlant Graduate Student Conference is a space for students at the University of Chicago and beyond to share their work. Conferences are selected from an open call for proposals from individual students or groups on any themes that reflect 3CT’s commitments to theorizing the present and to interdisciplinarity.
View all upcoming and past student-led events on our Events page
TEACH-INS
3CT has a long history of hosting teach-ins, both originated by the center and co-sponsored with campus partners. These discussion-based events are aimed at students of all levels and areas of study, and offer opportunities to critically reflect on events impacting contemporary life. Topics have included free speech, elections in India, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
CAS WORKSHOPS
3CT regularly offers our space to CAS workshops, interdisciplinary platforms that bring together graduate students and faculty for ongoing and collaborative exchange of ideas around particular areas of interest. From 2004 to 2018, 3CT hosted the Social Theory workshop, whose faculty sponsors were former 3CT co-director Moishe Postone and fellow William H. Sewell Jr. Other workshops with a connection to 3CT have included Historical Capitalisms, Comparative Politics, and African Studies.