The Critical Theory Archive (CTA) website provides a suite of web-based resources that reflect contemporary global directions in the field of critical theory, making critical theory research easier to discover and share.
The CTA Collections are housed at the University of California, Irvine, where they form part of the Libraries’ Department of Special Collection & Archives. The CTA’s holdings have traditionally included the René Wellek Library and reflect UCI’s long history of support for an engagement with key strands of critical theory in Europe and North America. This new website foregrounds the cross-regional and trans-linguistic character of critical theory, supplementing existing entries with a wide range of critical theoretical work from the Global South and other regions of the world. Arguably the most extensive archive of its kind, the CTA is now an important resource for the history and range of critical theory, particularly for documenting the transregional circulation and creation of critical theory.
With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP) approached the UC Irvine Libraries to undertake a collaboration from 2017 to 2019 on the Critical Theory Archive Research Resources Development Project to expand the CTA’s web-based resources to include critical theory from across the globe. This website gathers a range of research tools developed through this project including an international directory of critical theory archives, bibliographic collections, and other digital resources for international critical theory scholars and students.
The ICCTP seeks to document, connect, and support the new and various programs and projects that now represent critical theory across the globe. Through its work, the Consortium aims to document the global contours of critical theory today, supporting critical thought both inside and outside the university in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology studies, and seeking collaborative forms for critically responding to pressing global challenges. Housed in the Program in Critical Theory at UC Berkeley, it has established an active network of over 500 programs, projects, centers, and institutes from almost all regions of the globe and 47 countries, which now constitutes the largest international network in the humanities located in the UC system.