Welcome
The DE in Critical Theory at UC Davis provides doctoral students a double opportunity: to participate in interdisciplinary seminars focusing on the rich tradition of
critical thought, both ancient and modern; and to add a formal credential in critical theory to their degrees. Our faculty, drawn from various affiliated programs in the humanities
and social sciences, offer a wide range of expertise across multiple historical periods and theoretical approaches. Our seminars bring together students and faculty from across this
broad disciplinary spectrum, providing a rare opportunity to compare perspectives, and to interrogate the fundamental axioms and principles of social, political and cultural practice.
We are united by no single set of presuppositions but, rather, by a shared commitment to close reading, rigorous thinking and the pursuit of what Marx famously calls "a ruthless critique of everything that exists." We accordingly understand critical theory not as a static canon, nor as a merely academic exercise, but as a robust, ongoing engagement with texts, institutions, the polis, and the world.
Thinkers whose texts are regularly taught in our seminars include Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl, Heidegger, Bloch, Adorno, Benjamin, Arendt, Lacan, Foucault, Lyotard, Lacoue-Labarthe, Nancy, and Derrida.
In addition to our own activities, we maintain active ties with leading critical theorists around the world. Among those who have lectured or offered special seminars at Davis over the years are Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, T.J. Clark, Alexander Garcia Düttmann, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Rodolphe Gasché, Martin Jay, Fredric Jameson, Peggy Kamuf, David Farrell Krell, Ernesto Laclau, Jacques Lezra, Louis Marin, J. Hillis Miller, Moishe Postone, Kaja Silverman, Hayden White, and many others.