The School of Criticism and Theory (SCT) will host its 32nd summer session from June 15 to July 24 on the Cornell campus.

The intensive program attracts graduate students, scholars, visiting faculty and eminent theorists and critical thinkers from around the world for six-week seminars and shorter mini-seminars. As an interdisciplinary experience, SCT provides an opportunity to engage in critical discourse and to explore cultural trends, ideologies and recent developments in literary and humanistic studies.

The session also includes colloquia and public lectures by each of the SCT faculty members. Topics will range from torture, disbelief, espionage, sovereignty and responsibility to modern jazz, experimental art, the lyric and bilingualism.

The 2008 session features the following four six-week seminars with visiting faculty:

Additional mini-seminars of one week or more will be led by Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University; Wendy Brown and Judith Butler, both of the University of California-Berkeley; Gerald Early, Washington University; and Hal Foster, Princeton University.

"This summer's session of the School of Criticism and Theory has an outstanding group of seminar leaders and participants," said SCT Director Dominick LaCapra, the Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies at Cornell. "The participants are exceptional young scholars from major academic institutions both here and abroad, including most of the major research universities and over 20 countries in the roster. ... Sorry New York and Paris, but Ithaca will be an especially interesting place to spend the summer."

Founded in 1976 at the University of California-Irvine, SCT is now in its 12th year at Cornell. Participants include professors and advanced graduate students in the arts, humanities and related social sciences, and specific fields such as architecture, film studies, comparative literature, history and theater. Some receive tuition support from their home institutions, including approximately 40 SCT-affiliated schools.

For more information, visit http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/sct/.