The School of Criticism & Theory was founded in 1976 by a group of leading literary scholars in the conviction that
an understanding of theory is fundamental to humanistic studies.
Today, in an unparalleled summer campus experience, the SCT offers professors and advanced graduate students of literature and related social sciences a chance to work with preeminent figures in critical thought -- exploring literature's relationship with history, art, anthropology, and the law; examining its role in ideological and cultural movements; and reassessing theoretical approaches that have emerged over the last fifty years. Cornell also offers participants the resources of one of the greatest research libraries in the United States.
In an intense six-week course of study, faculty members and graduate students from around the world in literature, the arts, the humanities, and related social sciences explore recent developments in literary and humanistic studies.
Participants work with the SCT's core faculty of distinguished theorists in one of four six-week seminars. Each faculty member offers, in addition, a public lecture and a colloquium (based on an original paper) which are attended by the entire group.
The program also includes mini-courses taught by scholars who usually visit for one or two weeks. These consist of lectures, follow-up seminars, and extensive office hours. Finally, throughout the six weeks, a series of distinguished theorists visit the SCT as lecturers or respondents.
