MIT History, Theory, and Criticism Graduate Colloquium: UNCERTAINTY

Uncertainty inflects knowledge and its conditions of production. Risk governs our decision making. Indeterminacy conditions our arguments. Though we like to think that the past structures the future, so too does indeterminacy, change and the unexpected. Might, therefore, uncertainty, instead of being an invisible after-effect in epistemological equations, become a mode of critical engagement? 

As part of the 50th anniversary of the program in History, Theory, and Criticism (HTC) at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning, we, HTC graduate students, encourage a collective look toward this issue.

The 2025 HTC Graduate Colloquium will collaboratively probe the contours of historical knowability and attend to yet unmade futures in and across the disciplines of architecture, art, design, urbanism, and allied fields. Uncertainty offers space for creatively imagining the next 50 years — an urgent endeavor considering compounding pressures of unfolding environmental, humanitarian, and political crises in addition to increased scrutiny of the “value” of the humanities – indeed, research writ large – in our universities.

To this end, the Colloquium will showcase research from graduate students and recent graduates exploring uncertainty as historical thematic and method. In addition to presentations, our Uncertainty Roundtable (Friday, March 14 from 2-5pm) will convene distinguished scholars, curators, and publishers to lead a collaborative discussion on uncertainty as a (pre)condition for the humanities as well as strategies for conceptualizing, carrying out, and sharing our work.

The Colloquium is open to the public and free to attend but registration is required. Attendees can register here.

Please contact the organizers at htc.uncertainty@gmail.com with any questions and/or accessibility concerns.