Professor Saleem Badat of UKZN’s School of Social Sciences has joined the Board of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP) based at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

The ICCTP Board is co-chaired by the renowned critical feminist scholar, Professor Judith Butler of Berkeley, and Professor Zeynep Gambetti, a political theorist from Bogazici University in Turkey. The Board comprises leading critical scholars from around the world.

The ICCTP is an important global programme, which promotes critical theoretical thinking, runs a journal called Critical Times, publishes books, especially by Global South critical theorists, coordinates an open access repository of materials on critical theory in different languages, supports research and capacity building, and presents seminars.

‘We have asked Professor Saleem Badat to join this effort by becoming a member of the board because of his exemplary and engaged scholarship and commitment to social and political transformation,’ said Butler. ‘The board serves mainly as an advisory committee to the principle investigators of the current grant jointly funded by UC Berkeley and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.’

Badat said he was honoured by the invitation to join the ICCTP Board. ‘The ICCTP is an important global programme much needed in our time. It promotes the renewal and reimagining of critical theory as a lens for understanding the world, publishes the Critical Times journal, and translates and publishes books by Global South theorists,’ said Badat. ‘It also supports research and capacity building, holds seminars and houses an open access repository of critical theory materials in different languages. ICCTP is a young initiative. I look forward to contributing to its ongoing development as part of my commitment to institution-building in the Humanities.’