Society for Critical Exchange

THEORY INSTITUTE

March 26-29, 2026

SIXTEEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS FROM ACROSS THE U.S. IN THREE DAYS OF ENGAGING DISCUSSION.

About SCE The Society for Critical Exchange is North America’s oldest scholarly organization devoted to theory. Our various interdisciplinary projects, conferences, and symposia serve to advance the role of theory in academic and intellectual arenas. Our projects encompass a broad spectrum of disciplines, most prominently literary and cultural studies, legal studies and practices, economics, philosophy, and pedagogy.

The 2026 Institute The Society for Critical Exchange (SCE),this year co-sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s McCausland College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, and Texas A&M University-Victoria, is pleased to announce the topic of its seventeenth annual Theory Institute:

Postliberalism

Niki Kasumi Clements

Niki Kasumi Clements is the Watt and Lilly Jackson Associate Professor of Religion at Rice University. Clements is a Foucault specialist and author of Sites of the Ascetic Self.

Beyond Man: Postliberal Possibilities in Michel Foucault and Sylvia Wynter

Niki Kasumi Clements

Agnes Mueller

Agnes Mueller is a Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina. Mueller is the author, most recently, of Holocaust Migration in German Jewish Literatures. Photo credit: Annette Hornischer

The Family’s Fight: Resisting State Control

Agnes Mueller

Jeffrey R. Di Leo

Jeffrey R. Di Leo is Professor of English and Philosophy at Texas A&M University-Victoria. Di Leo is the author, most recently, of Dark Academe: Capitalism, Theory, and the Death Drive in Higher Education.

The Paradox of Postliberal Humanism

Jeffrey R. Di Leo

Brian O’Keeffe

Brian O’Keeffe is a Senior Lecturer in the French Department at Barnard College. O’Keeffe is the author, most recently, of “Philosophy's Resistance to Translation.”

Resistances of Liberalism: Reflections on Walter Benjamin, Ernesto Laclau and Jacques Ranciere

Brian O’Keeffe

Robin Truth Goodman

Robin Truth Goodman is a Distinguished Research Professor of English at Florida State University. Goodman is the author, most recently, of Milestones in Critical Feminist Theory.

The Postliberal University

Robin Truth Goodman

Mario Telò

Mario Telò is Professor of Rhetoric, Comparative Literature, and Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of the forthcoming The Late Animal: Edward Said, Classicism, and the Limits of Humanism.

Adorno, Said’s Liberal Humanism, and the Late Politics of musique informelle

Mario Telò

Peter Hitchcock

Peter Hitchcock is Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College and at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York City. Hitchcock is the author, most recently, of Seriality and Social Change.

A Short History of Postliberalism—and a Longer One of Neoliberalism

Peter Hitchcock

Kenneth J. Saltman

Kenneth J. Saltman is Professor of Educational Policy Studies at University of Illinois Chicago. Saltman is the author, most recently, of Smart Drugs, Screen Addicts and Attention Doping.

No Return: The Opportunity for Critical Education in the Postliberal Era

Kenneth J. Saltman

Rebecca Janzen

Rebecca Janzen is Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina. Janzen is the author, most recently, of Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production.

What Does Postliberalism Mean When Liberalism Was, at Best, a Theory? Lessons from a Study of Mexico

Rebecca Janzen

P. Khalil Saucier

P. Khalil Saucier is Professor of Critical Black Studies at Bucknell University. Saucier is co-author, most recently, of African Migrants, European Borders, and the Problem with Humanitarianism.

Postliberal Duplicity: The Problem of the Subject

P. Khalil Saucier

Noëlle McAfee

Noëlle McAfee is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University with a secondary appointment as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. McAfee is the author, most recently, of Feminism: A Quick Immersion.

The Eternal Allure of Fascism for Creatures Like Us

Noëlle McAfee

Nicole Simek

Nicole Simek is Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature at Whitman College. Simek is the author, most recently, of Alchemies of Blood and Afro-Diasporic Fiction: Race, Kinship, and the Passion for Ontology.

After Liberalism: Lyd and the Promise of Palestinian Futurity

Nicole Simek

Sophia A. McClennen

Sophia A. McClennen is Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at Penn State University and founding director of the Center for Global Studies. McClennen is the author, most recently, of Modern Political Satire: An Introduction.

Postliberal Sovereignty and the Politics of Extraction

Sophia A. McClennen

Adriel M. Trott

Adriel M. Trott is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew T. and Anne Ford Chair in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College. Trott is the author, most recently, of Aristotle on the Matter of Form: A Feminist Metaphysics of Generation.

Nation Trouble: Between Autochthony and Indigeneity

Adriel M. Trott

Paul Allen Miller

Paul Allen Miller is Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina and Distinguished Guest Professor at Ewha Womans University. Miller is the author, most recently, of Truth and Enjoyment in Cicero: Rhetoric and Philosophy Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

We Have Always Been Post Liberal

Paul Allen Miller

Zahi Zalloua

Zahi Zalloua is Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature and a Professor of Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at Whitman College. Zalloua is the author, most recently, of Fanon, Žižek, and the Violence of Resistance.

Illiberal Zionism: Gaza and Colonial Fascism

Zahi Zalloua

The Institute will take place from Thursday, March 26 to Sunday, March 29 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Columbia, South Carolina. Additional details regarding the Society for Critical Exchange or the upcoming Theory Institute can be found at the Society for Critical Exchange’s website (http://societyforcriticalexchange.org/) or by contacting Executive Director Jeffrey R. Di Leo (dileo@symploke.org).