About

The Center for the Study of Culture, Technology and Work at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York opened in 1988. Since its inception, the Center has focused on fostering connections between intellectuals and activists, and translating theoretical and conceptual work into practice.

Toward this end, the Center has sponsored conferences, colloquia, and workshops in diverse areas, including: the crisis of urbanism; globalization and resistance movements; education; technology (technoscience); and the future of work. The Center also supported the development of the Paolo Freire Institute, an organization of educational activists focused on advocating the democratization of education, especially for access to educational opportunity for traditionally excluded groups.  The Center has also undertaken several action research projects on problems of work and education in collaboration with SEIU Local 1199, Musicians Union Local 802, the three Library Locals of DC 37, and various other agencies.

In addition to our continuing research and ongoing seminars and conferences, the Center currently sponsors Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, a journal initiated to address the lapse of radical imagination in both left theory and in popular consciousness as well as serves as the host to the staff of the Left Forum, the largest annual conference of the left within the United States.