Eidology: n. The critical interpretation of culture’s contents, as vividly experienced and readily reproduced phenomena. Encompassing its system(s) of ideas, criteria for interpreting experience, etc.

Our Mission

Eidology endeavors to explore the role of aesthetics in contemporary culture. Through reading groups, colloquia, conference participation, and online publishing Eidology finds and creates new places for critical intervention. Eidology takes as a guiding principle that the truly revolutionary aspect of overturning high/low cultural distinctions was how it brought attention to cultural theory as a tool for valuing and engaging with cultural objects regardless of the cultural capital they have accrued. This means for us that anything can be an occasion for thought. The risk of such radical critique is that it forecloses the possibility of any meaningful discussion of particular objects as such. Wary of this, Eidology privileges a nuanced, rigorous, but playful style that unpacks the aesthetic in culture without losing sight of the object among the plethora of academic and institutional truisms that delimit the space of inquiry. The ethic of Eidology is that the best way to be a scholar is to remain open to new ideas and ways of approaching texts, and most importantly to write and share work with fellow travelers.

Developed by Seth A. Morton and Kristen E. Ray,
with support from friends and faculty at Rice and around the world.