Wikipedia:WikiProject Philosophy/Continental

Title

WikiProject Critical Theory

Scope and Goals

(Please note that this document is a work in progress -- feel free to edit it as you see fit.)

This WikiProject seeks to coordinate efforts to fill the substantial holes in articles about Critical Theory. This is a somewhat difficult task, since most people working in critical theory can't even agree on what critical theory is. Regardless, it's a major aspect of contemporary academic work, and Wikipedia needs to be up on it.

At the time of writing, entries on Critical Theory tend to be stubby, inaccurate, and to have sections put in that seem to be motivated heavily by an anti-postmodernist or anti-academic slant. It is not our goal to ignore the controversy that still surrounds postmodern theory, but to help collect that controversy in coherent sections of relevent articles on general topics within postmodernism, and to give a sense of the larger debate. Ideally, resources on Critical Theory within Wikipedia will be useful both for a generalist who is seeking to better understand contemporary academic work in the humanities, and by, say, a first year graduate student looking for a resource to help stay afloat in an intro theory class. To this end, we need contributors ranging from people working professionally in the field of critical studies to laymen who can point out that we've decended into hopeless jargon.

Here are some open Continental philosophy task force tasks: Add references to: Theodor W. Adorno Major overhaul: Critical Theory basic topics Semiotics Queer theory Expansion: A Thousand Plateaus Cyborg theory Queer Pedagogy Critical theory Critical race theory Jacques Derrida bibliography Notable figures in critical theory Psychoanalytic theory Mikhail Bakhtin List of works in critical theory Critical Discourse Analysis De-Stub: Barbara Herrnstein Smith French Theory Mary Louise Pratt Juan-David Nasio Peer Review Theodor W. Adorno Diegesis Third Generation of Critical Theory Axel Honneth Nancy Fraser Seyla Benhabib, etc. Economics Influence to Critical Theory Friedrich Pollock Critical Theory of IR and the GPE Improve article on neo-gramscianism and create new category for this field of critical theory Feel free to edit this list or discuss these tasks.

The goals of this WikiProject are as follows:

1. To identify those areas of critical theory which lack sufficient coverage on the 'pedia.
2. To expand those articles which do not provide reasonable overviews of concepts.
3. To correct those articles that do not accurately represent thought on a subject.
4. To clarify those articles that are a mess of jargon.

How you can help

1. Locate pages that need attention, then add them to the tasks list or the the Open Tasks list.
2. Locate or create pages related to critical theory and add them to the list of topics in the project
3. Add the Open Tasks box to your User: or User_talk: page. (Add {{msg:CriticalTheoryTasks}} anywhere on the page.)
4. Add this page or the Open Tasks list to your watchlist, and work on projects listed.
5. Complete open tasks and check them off the list.
6. Discuss what else we can do!

You can also add yourself to the list of participants below. Thanks for helping out!

Participants

• Snowspinner
• Seth Mahoney

Open Tasks

When adding a task, please follow the current format, including space for volunteer signup and timestamping the addition. If any additional information is needed, please include it in the entry, but try to keep more extensive discussion on the talk pages. If you want, you can also add the task to the Critical Theory Tasks box. After a task is completed, please remove it from both lists.

Short-term tasks

• Finish work hammering out a compromise on Heteronormativity
  • Volunteers: Snowspinner
• De-Stub Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
  • Volunteers: None at present time.
• Expand Teresa de Lauretis
  • Volunteers: None at present time.
• De-Stub Homi Bhabha
  • Volunteers: None at present time.

Mid-range tasks

• Update Notable figures in critical theory
  • Volunteers: Snowspinner
• Update Critical Theory basic topics
  • Volunteers: None at present time.
• Develop an actual list of topics that fall under Critical Theory. Make a series out of them?
  • Volunteers: None at present time.
• Create Notable works in critical theory
  • Volunteers: Snowspinner
• Create Critical race theory
  • Volunteers: None at present time.

Long-term tasks

• Develop Timeline of critical theory
  • Volunteers: None at present time.

MediaWiki Custom Elements and Task Box

{{msg:CriticalTheoryTasks}} will add the open tasks list to a page. (Note: cap-sensitive.)

This list will be regularly updated by volunteers with pages that need attention. If you find such a page, feel free to add it to the list. If you wish to place the box on your own User or User_talk page, it would be much appreciated. (Keep in mind that the box is currently auto-justified to the right.)

Putting {{msg:CriticalTheory}} at the top of a page will add this notice to it:

This message should be placed on relevant articles. Such articles might include:

1. An article that members of the WikiProject are actively trying to improve.
2. An article about a major topic in critical theory
3. An article that needs special attention. (In this case, you should also link to it on this page or the open critical theory tasks box.

A list of articles that have been claimed as part of the project can be found here. Please add any pages you tag to the list.

Metadata

Parentage

This WikiProject is either a top-level project, or has been orphaned.

Descendant Wikiprojects

No descendant WikiProjects have yet been defined. Hopefully some day we'll be able to spin off baby projects for individual branches of critical theory.

Similar Wikiprojects

We consider ourselves the sister project of WikiProject Philosophy. Many of their topics could fall under ours, and you could do worse than joining up with them as well. There are several topics which both projects have an interest in.