Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate

The Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate (SCCTC) encourages students to pursue theory-intensive courses in a wide range of disciplines and departments with the aim of developing proficiency in the study of theory, and it gives a name to that pursuit. The commitment to theory and critical inquiry evidenced in the scholarship and coursework of the Wesleyan faculty is one of the university’s greatest and most distinctive resources. Thus, the Certificate facilitates a coordinated, inter-disciplinary program of study in theory across our rich, liberal arts curriculum, and allows students to identify and leverage these curricular assets.

What do we mean by “theory” and “theory-intensive courses”? Fundamentally, these are courses critically indebted to the complex legacies of Deconstruction, the Frankfurt School, Marxism, Phenomenology, and Post-Structuralism. A preliminary and more ample—but not at all exhaustive—inventory of interrelated “domains” of theory aggregated by the SCCTC might include courses taught about: critical media studies; critical theory; social theory; cultural theory; continental philosophy and literature; black critical theory; Afro-pessimism; political theory; intellectual history and historiography; post-colonial theory; critical race studies; feminist theory; psychoanalytic theory; literary theory; film theory; musicology and music theory; aesthetic theory; religion and ontotheology; political economy; queer theory; and critical science and technology studies. Courses constitutively and thoroughly structured in relation to one or more of those “domains” will either appear in the annually updated list of SCCTC credits in Wesmaps or can potentially be added for credit by student appeal to the current SCCTC Coordinator(s).

While adrift from the moorings of any one department or discipline, the SCCTC’s mission and history are tied to those of Wesleyan’s Center for the Humanities. Currently, the SCCTC is one of about ten, active “Clusters and Certificates” offered by Wesleyan’s liberal-arts curriculum. Unlike a minor or a major, there is not a protocol and hierarchy of courses that students must complete according to a disciplinary architectonic. Rather, like other Certificates at Wesleyan, the SCCTC gives a name to a range of courses offered by faculty in different departments, primarily across Divisions I and II (i.e., the Humanities and the Social Sciences), and to Wesleyan students’ rigorous and creative pursuits of theory within and beyond their major(s) and minor(s). By virtue of the design of some majors (e.g., CSS, Sociology, English, COL, FGSS, etc.), students might be eligible for the SCCTC and not even realize it. Look into the Requirements on the “About” page and write to the Current Coordinator(s) with further questions.

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