The Center for Law, Culture, and Social Thought (CLCST) provides a forum for several reading groups that meet on a regular basis. You will find below information on the following reading groups presently meeting this academic year (2000-2001).

Northwestern University Theory Reading Group
The Consortium on Continental Philosophy and Theory
The Culture and Society Workshop
The Gender and Society workshop
Heidegger Reading Group
Interdisciplinary Reading Group in Contemporary Social and Political Thought
Theory Seminar
Reading group on the theme of Community in Contemporary French and Italian Thought

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Northwestern University Theory Reading Group is an interdisciplinary group that meets several times during the course of the academic year to discuss texts that fall under the general rubric of "theory." This includes a wide variety of writings that address a range of questions relevant to contemporary formations in different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The readings are agreed upon by the participants. Northwestern faculty and graduate students, as well as other members of the Chicago academic community, are welcome. There was one meeting in the Winter quarter on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer. The final discussion for this year is scheduled for April 24, on Edouard Glissant's Poetics of Relation and an essay by Sylvia Wynter about Glissant. Check the events page for more information. Faculty director: Alexander Weheliye a-weheliye@northwestern.edu.

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The Consortium on Continental Philosophy and Theory aims to provide a forum for intensive discussions of continental philosophy as well as those versions of literary, cultural, and social theory that take their point of departure from the development of philosophy in Germany, France, and Italy -- to name only a few countries -- from Kant onward. To this end, the Consortium gathers together Northwestern scholars from across the various disciplines in the Humanities and serves as a focal point for both faculty members and graduate students who work on -- or are interested in -- continental philosophy and theory. You will find lectures, confereneces and workshops organized by this group on the events page of this Web site. For more information, please contact Prof. John McCumber at jmcc@merle.acns.nwu.edu.

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The Culture and Society Workshop is an interdisciplinary workshop for advanced graduate students and faculty whose research involves the connections between cultures and societies. It meets every Thursday, 3-5 p.m. at the Kaplan Center for the Humanities, 2010 Sheridan Road. New members are always welcome. For more information, please contact co-ordinator Jennifer Jenkins (only_connect@msn.com) or faculty director Wendy Griswold (w-griswold@northwestern.edu).

The Gender and Society workshop is an interdisciplinary workshop for graduate students and faculty whose research involves gender in any of its multiple and diverse manifestations, from any of the many analytic approaches and theoretical perspectives that have developed in the study of gender. Any graduate student interested in sociology of gender may participate. We'll engage in several different activities during our meetings. First, participants present their research in progress and receive comments from other members of the workshop. Second, we meet with visiting scholars to discuss their work. Finally, we occasionally read and discuss important books or articles in the area of gender studies. New members are always welcome. For further information, contact the workshop coordinator, Kendra Schiffman (k-schiffman@northwestern.edu) or the faculty director, Ann Shola Orloff (a-orloff@northwestern.edu).

The Heidegger Reading Group meets to discuss the texts of and on Martin Heidegger and commentary on those works. The present group consists of graduate students from Comparative Literary Studies, German, Philosophy, and Political Theory. This past quarter they discussed Heidegger's texts devoted to the interrelation of poetry (Dichtung) and thinking (Denken), including Heidegger's Elucidations of Hšlderlin's Poetry and his lectures on Hšlderlin's Germanien, Der Rhein, Andenken, and Der Ister. For more information, please contact Markus Hardtmann (m-hardtmann@northwestern.edu).

Interdisciplinary Reading Group in Contemporary Social and Political Thought is an interdisciplinary reading group for graduate students with research interests in political and social thought who would like to read newer texts addressing questions of democratic theory, ethics, and political violence. This past quarter they discussed Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt's Empire, Gayatari Spivak's A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, and Jacques RanciŽre's The Names of History. For more information, please contact Torrey Shanks at t-shanks@northwestern.edu or Ella Myers at e-myers1@northwestern.edu