Focus
Each year the program will designate a theme or problem that will serve as the focus
of an interdisciplinary seminar and a major conference. The themes are chosen for their
capacity to frame new approaches to research and teaching on 20th-century culture. They
engage issues that rarely become a central focus within established fields, yet provide
a productive perspective when played back onto these fields. Past themes have been
surveillance and sound.
The program offers one seminar each year, co-taught by scholars from different fields,
which focuses on that year's theme. Every seminar will be oriented toward the production
of an event (such as a conference or exhibition), a publication, a web site, or a media
project. The program, often in collaboration with other departments, programs, and centers
at Princeton, sponsors a wide range of events on the year's theme; these will include a major
conference as well as smaller colloquia and lectures.