The Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, founded in 1986 by Rutgers Professor of English George Levine, changed its name in 2005 to the Center for Cultural Analysis (CCA). In making this change, it announced that it has greatly enlarged the scope of its work and its role in the life of the Rutgers campus and beyond.

The CCA will continue to connect the local Rutgers community with international intellectual debates by exploring rich themes such as “Intellectual Property,” “Mind and Culture,” and “Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies.” It will pursue a broad mission to address problems that lie across the traditional disciplines of the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences, but the new Center will host a greater range of programs and seminars than it has in the past. Organized around a core of year-long CCA fellows studying selected themes, these events will be open to all Rutgers faculty and students. They will include working groups for faculty, public events connected to ongoing projects on different interdisciplinary topics, graduate seminars related to the Center’s themes, and undergraduate honors seminars.

Fellowships at the CCA are designed to be held by Rutgers faculty and graduate students, as well as by postdoctoral scholars from outside the university. Graduate fellows enjoy a year-long dissertation residency at the CCA, supported by a stipend. Faculty fellowships come in two forms: working group fellows and CCA graduate teaching fellows. The former run year-long working groups for Rutgers faculty and graduate students on themes they propose to the Center. The latter conduct graduate seminars relating to one of the Center’s projects. Working groups and classes will be held in the “smart” seminar room at the CCA, which is equipped for multimedia presentations.

Postdoctoral fellows pursue individual research projects relating to a CCA theme, as well as participate in working groups and seminars. Beginning in fall 2006, each postdoctoral fellow will teach an undergraduate honors course during her/his year at Rutgers.

In addition to other programming, the Center will continue to explore new modes and venues for the publication of CCA research. Prior to 2007, it was the home of the journal Social Text.

CCA projects and programs are guided by an executive committee made up of the director, the permanent fellows, and the chair of the Rutgers Department of English, which sponsors the Center. The committee consults annually with an advisory board of distinguished scholars about the direction and programming of the Center.

It is our hope that, with the combined contributions of the fellows, students, executive committee, advisory board, and staff, the Center in its new form will be an ever more active presence in the intellectual life of Rutgers and will play a significant role in supporting interdisciplinary cultural studies across today’s academy, in keeping with the vision of founder George Levine.