Gauss Seminars in Criticism

Director

Hal Foster

Executive Committee

M. Christine Boyer, Architecture

Eduardo Cadava, English, Comparative Literature

Caryl G. Emerson, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature

Hal Foster, Art and Archaeology

Diana Fuss, English

Daniel Heller-Roazen, Comparative Literature

Thomas Levin, German

Gideon Rosen, Philosophy, ex officio

Michael G. Wood, English

 

In 1949 Princeton University instituted a series of seminars in criticism and named them in memory of Christian Gauss, who was for many years chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Dean of the College. The aim of these seminars is to explore the theory and practice of criticism in the humanities and the sciences, and, indeed, in any area where critical thought seems appropriate or necessary.

The seminars usually consist of a series of three lectures, each followed by an informal but often challenging discussion. The audience is drawn from the Princeton faculty, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Princeton-Rutgers community, and the wider communities of New York and Philadelphia. Interested students are also invited to participate. There are ordinarily two such series each year.

Each seminar series is conducted by a distinguished writer, artist, critic, or scholar who is invited to present material that he or she takes to be of interest to specialists and nonspecialists alike, and which seems likely to lead to an exchange of ideas and possibilities for further study. Seminar topics characteristically represent work-in-progress, although reconsiderations of previous work have proven fruitful.

This program also organizes interdisciplinary colloquia.