Graduate programs -Reply

[Warren S. Goldstein]

Dear Kevin,

Finishing up my dissertation at the New School on a topic related to
critical theory, I feel that I must respond to your query.  The New School
is good in critical theory, but it is not the only place.  

The most important question you need to concern yourself is what
discipline you want to affiliate yourself with.  Critical Theory is taught in a
variety of departments including philosophy, literature, sociology, political
science, history etc.  In each department, there are not usually more than
one or two faculty members who specialize in critical theory.  If you are
really interested in studying critical theory, you need to find out in which
departments these individuals teach.  To name a few, Martin Jay teaches
at Berkeley (history I believe), Susan Buck-Morss teaches at Cornell
(government), Craig Calhoun teaches at NYU (Sociology).  This is only a
partial list.  If you are interested in Adorno, do a bibliographical search on
recent books published and find out where these individuals teach.  

However, a word of warning.  While you will want to make sure that
there is someone in the department who is strong in critical theory, there
are many other criteria you need to consider.  Critical theory is only one
very specialized subarea of these disciplines (for which there is little
demand).  You will need to broaden out by taking other classes in the
department.  What is most important that you first figure out what
discipline you want to study, which universities have strong departments
in that discipline, and finally which will enable you to study critical theory
(along with other subareas you may be interested in).

Sincerely,

Warren Goldstein