Critical Studies Research Group

The Critical Studies Research Group

The Critical Studies Research Group (CSRG) was founded in 2011 by post-graduate students at the School of Humanities, University of Brighton, with the aim of providing a stimulating forum for the discussion and exploration of critical ideas and practices in light of the socio-political challenges we face today. Comprised of MA and PhD students, the CSRG shares a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity: our current research interests reach from a concern with continental philosophy and re-conceptualisations of materialism, via environmental and medical ethics, to memory studies and cultural history. We organise weekly seminars in which we present work-in-progress to each other, receiving feedback and critique from diverse critical angles. The challenges that interdisciplinarity might pose are counteracted by our shared interest in the role and scope of critical thought and practice under contemporary capitalism.

Thanks to support from the School and Faculty, over the past two years we have been able to explore themes related to this question, engaging in critical exchanges with other scholars by organising workshops, seminar series and a postgraduate conference. In the academic year 2012 / 2013, we co-organised a weekly research seminar series with the Centre for Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex.

Our next project is to revitalise the School of humanitie’s research culture by means of a weekly joint staff and PhD seminar series that will provide a space to present work in a informal and supportive environment.

The CSRG is open to anyone with an interest in critical thought (broadly understood).