Critical Case Studies
Over the past decade, critical scholarship and activism have converged around the question of how to theorize political events as sites of rupture, crisis, and possibility. As multiple intersecting forces from climate catastrophe to authoritarian populism, from racial capitalism to digital surveillance reshape contemporary life, scholars have turned to the critical case study to interrogate, interpret, and contest these formations.
In this context, Theory and Event invites submissions of critical case studies that examine specific events, practices, institutions, cultural works, or emergent subjectivities as a way to advance political theory. Rather than treating events as isolated data points, critical case studies read them as dense, politically and culturally charged moments capable of reframing our understanding of power, resistance, aesthetics, and meaning.
Drawing on a long tradition of theorizing from the ground up, from Gramsci’s reflections on “organic crises” to Stuart Hall’s conjunctural analysis, and feminist, queer, decolonial, and abolitionist critiques, critical case studies foreground the contingency and contractedness of the social world. They also ask what new theoretical, artistic, and political questions emerge when we attend closely to specific sites and moments of struggle.
Alongside political and cultural theory, Theory and Event actively invites contributions that draw from the broader currents of the arts and humanities, including literature, visual art, performance, film, and aesthetics, as well as philosophical inquiry. We encourage authors to explore how artistic and cultural forms illuminate the affective and symbolic dimensions of political events, and how philosophical concepts such as temporality, ethics, ontology, and epistemology can deepen our analyses. This interdisciplinary approach reflects Theory and Event’s commitment to scholarship that is empirically grounded, theoretically expansive, and creatively engaged: moving between concrete events and abstract reflection.
We especially welcome contributions that:
- Interrogate the emergence of new forms of governance, inequality, solidarity, and cultural expression in the wake of crisis.
- Analyse how events are narrated, contested, and mediated across artistic, digital, and institutional platforms.
- Examine the theoretical, aesthetic, and philosophical stakes of studying localized phenomena within global systems of racial capitalism, coloniality, and militarism.
- Explore how the method of the case study itself might be radicalized, decolonized, or reimagined through engagement with philosophy, literature, and the arts.
This call emerges from an increasing recognition that critical theory must remain responsive to the unfolding and the unfinished events, cultural works, and practices that demand interpretation not just for what they mean, but for what they do, unsettle, or make possible.
Guiding Questions
Authors might consider questions such as (but not limited to):
- How can critical case studies help us theorize crises and conjunctures, rather than merely describe them?
- In what ways do specific cultural works, performances, or philosophical frameworks reveal the workings of larger systems of power such as racial capitalism, settler colonialism, patriarchy, or imperialism?
- How do we negotiate the tension between the singularity of the event (or artwork) and the generality of theory?
- What insights emerge when we bring together aesthetic analysis, philosophical concepts (like temporality or ethics), and empirical critique?
- What ethical, methodological, or epistemological challenges arise in writing about ongoing struggles, violence, and solidarities through arts and humanities lenses?
Suggested Submission Topics
Possible areas of focus could include, but are not limited to:
- Critical readings of recent uprisings, protests, or insurrections through philosophical and aesthetic frameworks
- Analyses of cultural events, performances, films, or artworks that mark shifts in governance, solidarity, or public discourse
- Case studies of institutional crises, policy changes, or judicial rulings as read through literary or philosophical theory
- Studies of digital or media events and their affective impact on political subjectivities
- Conjunctural analyses linking local crises to global systems, drawing on arts and humanities methodologies
- Ethnographic, archival, or historical case studies that theorize power, resistance, and cultural meaning
- Reflections on how philosophy, literature, and visual culture can radicalize the method of the critical case study
- Analyses exploring affect, aesthetics, and symbolic representation in moments of crisis and transformation
Critical Pedagogy and Activist Scholarship
Theory and Event is pleased to announce a new section devoted to two evolving areas within contemporary political and cultural theory:
Critical Pedagogy and Activist‑Scholarship rooted in the Arts and Humanities and Philosophy.
By creating a dedicated category in each issue, we aim to highlight and share the vital, often experimental work of scholars, educators, artists, and activists whose creative practices and critical reflections shape the field’s engagement with power, meaning, and transformation. We welcome unique essays from those working at the intersections of philosophy, critical theory, cultural production, and political life, whether in classrooms, communities, or public institutions, to share innovative approaches, pose challenging questions, and expand the horizons of critical inquiry.
These contributions should clearly articulate a central argument or explore a specific question relevant to the broader field of political theory, cultural critique, and interdisciplinary humanities.
Critical Pedagogy
We invite original essays that critically examine pedagogical concerns and/or offer innovative practices informed by philosophy, aesthetics, and political theory. Beyond a collection of classroom strategies, critical pedagogy here is understood as a mode of theorizing from practice: a generative method that interrogates inherited assumptions, foregrounds historically marginalized experiences, and theorizes education as a site of affective, ethical, and political struggle.
We particularly encourage essays that reflect on teaching as an engaged practice within philosophy, cultural studies, critical race theory, feminist theory, or decolonial critique; that consider how aesthetic forms and philosophical concepts inform pedagogy; or that experiment with new forms of public and collective learning.
Activist‑Scholarship
We also invite essays that critically investigate the ethical, political, and methodological challenges of crafting scholarship in service of social change. Here, activist scholarship is understood expansively as practices that traverse and complicate the lines between theorizing and doing, between scholarship and activism, and between creative expression and critical analysis.
Instead of straightforward descriptions of particular projects or organizations, we encourage submissions that offer reflective and theoretically grounded analyses. Essays might consider tensions and paradoxes that arise in activist work, propose new frameworks informed by philosophical inquiry and aesthetic practice, or explore how creative and cultural forms contribute to reimagining collective life and resistance. We are particularly drawn to contributions that illuminate how affect, symbolism, and ethical questions shape activist scholarship and its potential to transform understanding and action alike.