The Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory

The Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory—known as 3CT—is a space for the critical discussion and reimagination of social, political, and cultural processes in the world today. 

The shared query that drives the center is: how do we theorize the present? 3CT supports work that interrogates systems of power and value, that proposes methods and frameworks for making sense of recent events and ongoing transformations, and that demands that theory be relevant to the world we live in. In doing so, we foster an interdisciplinary community of scholars, students, and practitioners who produce new forms of theory that help to illuminate both what is and what could be.

Founded in 2004 by seven faculty members from the the humanities and social sciences, our collective has grown to include 16 fellows, enabling imaginative collaborations across the disciplines. Our intellectual activities include ongoing projects, lectures, teach-ins, book salons, conferences, publications, and teaching.