Centre for Theoretrical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences

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The aim and purpose of the Centre is to stimulate contact and exchanges between different theoretical approaches and disciplines.

In order to facilitate this process of exchange, the Centre organises:

Mini-courses and seminars -
Mini-courses and seminars. Guest speakers have included Giorgio Agamben, Etienne Balibar, Brian Barry, Alain Badiou, Homi Bhabha, Mikkel Borch‑Jacobsen, William Connolly, Jacques Derrida, Costas Douzinas, Hubert Dreyfus, Robert Fine, Christopher Fynsk, Rodolphe Gasché, Raymond Geuss, Robert Gibbs, Paul Gilroy, David Held, Paul Hirst, Chantal Mouffe, Onora O'Neill, Jacques Rancière, Renata Salecl, Richard Sennett, Quentin Skinner, Ernst Tugendhat, Samuel Weber and Slavoj Zizek.

A Distinguished Annual Lecture -
A Distinguished Annual Lecture: Richard Rorty (1991), Agnes Heller (1993), Jean-Luc Nancy (1996), Michael Walzer (1997), William Connolly (1999), James Tully (2000), Fred Dallmayr (2001), Bhikhu Parekh (2002), Onora O'Neill (2004), Steven Lukes (2005),Richard Bernstein (2006) and James Conant (2007). Maarten Hajer (2009).

Thematic Development Seminars -
1. Narrative
2. Human Rights
The aim of these seminars and others to come in the future will be to provide individuals in the university with an in depth exposure to certain areas of potential use in their own work. The seminars will take place over three days on average and will aim to provide a picture of the fundamentals suitable for someone doing advanced research. These sessions are by no means meant to supplant what is offered in the normal curriculum, but instead are aimed at staff and those graduate students who are likely to have a particular interest that such a course can meet.

Workshops, short visits by British and foreign scholars, and permanent working groups on particular topics -
Workshops, short visits by British and foreign scholars, and permanent working groups on particular topics. A visitors programme, encouraging academics working on theoretical subjects to spend their sabbatical periods at the Centre. Since 1990 visiting scholars from Slovenia, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Romania, Venezuela, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Norway, the United States and Canada have been associated with the Centre.

Provides a forum of interdisciplinary contact for doctoral students -
Provides a forum of interdisciplinary contact for doctoral students. Doctoral programmes in Continental Philosophy, Ideology and Discourse Analysis and Legal Theory organised by various Departments are affiliated to the Centre.

The Centre offers research students a highly favourable environment in which to profit from the teaching and work in progress of both colleagues and faculty members, which transcends the confines of a departmental framework. IT is also of assistance to those wishing to discuss their work in an interdisciplinary context by people from a variety of fields and theoretical approaches.