Please join the Critical Studies Department for the official launch party and inaugural meeting of its new internal initiative: The Centre for Aesthetics and Politics (CAP).

Artists, organizations, designers, and art historians engage in conversations about political, social and ideological impacts on the reception and practice of their arts in California.  This Event is an effort to further develop sophisticated reflections into this domain of contestation.

About The Centre for Aesthetics and Politics (CAP).

Founded in 2021, the Centre for Aesthetics and Politics acts as the focus and clearing house for interest and ongoing research and teaching covering the interrelated connections between the aesthetic and political domains. Over the last fifty years steady scholarship has confirmed the importance of this area for a set of global thinkers as varied as Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault and Jacques Rancière. CAP is committed to advancing original speculative and empirical efforts in tandem with this growing scholarly tradition. CAP promotes and will include:

1. Publication of special sections or issues in respected scholarly and cultural journals.
2. Symposia on aesthetics and politics topics.
3. Internships for CCA students concerned with programming and writing in magazines such as our present association with DISPATCHES magazine.
4. Speakers for lectures and conferences on aesthetics and politics.
5. Informal reading and discussion groups on related topics.
6. Association with entrepreneurial enterprises that are focusing on aesthetic and management themes, such as the Oxford journal: Industrial and Corporate Change.
7. Support of undergraduate and graduate programs and related courses at CCA.
8. A central venue for CCA’s international students particularly engaged in related areas of aesthetics, arts, and politics with regard to their respective cultures.