‘Theory Today’ working group [USC] is organizing a two-day theory workshop with one of the preeminent and prolific theorists of our time, Prof. Todd McGowan1.  The workshop will take place on March 12-13, 2026, at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles), and will have the following schedule:

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Day 1 : March 12, 2026

Session 1 | McGowan: Foundations of Thinking [10 am to 1 pm]

-          Workshop session focused on reading and discussing primary texts, including Hegel, Kant, Marx, and Lacan.

Session 2 | McGowan: Capitalist Drives and Cinematic Desires [3 pm to 6 pm]

-          Workshop session focused on reading and discussing signature pieces from McGowan, from his earliest essays to his latest monographs.  

Day 2: March 13, 2026 

Book Discussion: Pure Excess: Capitalism and Commodity (Columbia 2024) [11 to 1 pm]

Keynote Lecture by Todd McGowan + Dinner Reception [5 to 8 pm]

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To apply for the workshop, please fill out the following Google Form: https://forms.gle/xqy9Bm7t6PdzgDc17

Application Deadline: 15th November 2025

[NOTE: To attend the workshop, it is required that you are available for both days (all four sessions)]

For Queries, email: theorytodayworkinggroup@gmail.com 

1Todd McGowan is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Vermont. He is the author of path-breaking works of critical scholarship, including Embracing Alienation (2024), Emancipation After Hegel (2019), Only a Joke can Save Us (2017), Capitalism and Desire (2016), Psychoanalytic Film Theory and the Rules of the Game (2015), Enjoying What you Don't Have (2013), and more recently Pure Excess (2024), among many other monographs.