Centre for Critical Thought

Featured story

Hand written text

Centre for Critical Thought

A trans-faculty centre at the University of Kent

Welcome to the Centre for Critical Thought (CCT), an interdisciplinary home for critically-oriented theory and practice in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Kent. Research within the CCT encompasses a wide variety of themes and perspectives in contemporary critical thought.

The Centre for Critical Thought has its origins in a commitment to critique that traverses the humanities and social sciences. This commitment led the founding directors Maria Drakopoulou (Kent Law School), Iain MacKenzie (Politics and International Relations) and Lorenzo Chiesa (European Culture and Languages) to establish the Centre in 2013.

Today, the Centre for Critical Thought encompasses members from many disciplines across the University with a shared interest in contemporary theoretical, social, juridical and political questions. Our members, including a vibrant postgraduate contingent, are drawn from diverse fields, such as modern European philosophy, critical legal theory, political and social thought, psychoanalytic theory, religious studies, theatre studies, film studies, art history, social anthropology, and sociology. Members also contribute to a wide range of Masters programmes across the University.

The Centre is home to a wide variety of events, from major conferences and lectures through to seminars, workshops, and reading groups. Since 2015, as a Kent Law School initiative, the CCT has run an annual summer school in Paris, the Kent Summer School in Critical Theory. Currently, the Centre’s activities also include a number of seminar series, providing a more sustained forum for work on Art, Law and Politics, Continental Feminist Theory, Political and Social Thought, Law and the Human, Critical Continental Legal Thought, and The Future of Work. We also host a Postgraduate Seminar Series, showcasing critical research from all disciplines currently being conducted by postgraduate researchers at Kent and beyond.