The world to come is already upon us. Critical Futures is an interdisciplinary research group of faculty and graduate students at the University of Michigan who seek innovative theoretical approaches for addressing the most pressing issues of our time: the climate crisis, the structural inequality endemic to late racial biocapitalism, and the inescapable influence of digital technology. These inextricable issues pose unique challenges to traditional modes of critical inquiry and demand a profound revaluation of our practices and disciplinary entrenchments. Centering the transformative potential of critical theory today is all the more urgent in the face of the systematic defunding of higher education and the strategic disempowerment of scholarly criticism in mainstream culture. Critical Futures is a collective of thinkers committed to affirming the value of deep thinking and critical analysis for understanding the world we live in and to imagining alternatives to the futures that we were promised. The Critical Futures Project is co-led by Anna Watkins Fisher (American Culture) and Antoine Traisnel (English and Comparative Literature). |