Oregon Institute for Creative Research

Bringing together the long and rigorous tradition of critical theory and the emerging domain of creative research, OICR is a research institute and school devoted to work at the intersection of ethics, aesthetics, ecology, and education What happens when a cultural theorist, a medievalist, and a molecular biologist are thrown into a room together and asked for their give-and-take on any subject? O

r, they can choose an intersection where all the busy boulevards of knowledge and information converge, taking up, together, the labor of thought. This is what we have attempted to do for over a decade, from co-teaching the yearlong seminar we developed on Research Design and Methods to joint papers and projects. Throughout our collaborations over the years, we have insisted on one principle more than any other: the free and direct communication and exchange of ideas. What we have found is that if collaboration is to prove salutary rather than merely distracting, it must be subjected to serious thought and critique. As the stakes grow higher, the consequences grow increasingly consequential. Indeed, what is at stake today is nothing less than the future of the planet. (Punch the phrase “end of the planet” into Google, and the responses total 189,000,000.) Given the consequences, we can no longer afford the kind of false consensus that has too often characterized enterprises attempting to bring together artists, humanists, and scientists.