Applied Theory Initiative

This initiative intervenes in the common understanding of theory as a highly specialized, contemplative practice divorced from material life. Instead, we return to an older meaning of theoria as a journey, both sacred and political, and ask how theory might circulate through lived experience. In other words, turning theory on its head, we do not ask how theories can be applied to the world, but rather, explore the various ways that theory shows up in the world.

Projects

Built-environment Institute for Applied Studies in Africa and the Middle East

BIAS-AME is a continuing education institute that focuses on the Built Environment in Africa and the Middle East. Moving away from siloed educational models, it aims to reorient the pedagogical approach towards an interdisciplinary learning model that addresses historic and precarious urban landscapes, climate change and spatial justice. It provides participants with both theoretical tools and practical skills to engage with the diverse challenges of on-ground problems. This multi-model pedagogical system deploys critical thinking, applied education, networking, capacity building and creative forms of partnerships with other entities and institutions.

Epistolary Epistemologies

“Epistolary Epistemologies” is a feminist collective writing project that draws on the epistolary tradition to generate creative and reflective practices of feminist critique in the digital era. Integrating arts research and humanities, the project aims to create what Stefano Harney and Fred Moten outline scholarship as “a kind of sociality” and “activity of rehearsal,” that draws attention to the ways in which personal letter-writing is “already intellectual,” and needs no application to make it theoretical. This auto-theoretical practice explores how “the personal is theoretical.”

Ruminations

In Michel de Montaigne’s Essais, he contrasts two types of pedagogy using food metaphors. On the one hand, the didactic mode of teaching “is a sign of rawness and indigestion to disgorge food just as we swallowed it. The stomach has not done its work.” In the philosophical mode of pedagogy, on the other hand, one chews slowly, digests fully and thus “changes the condition and form of what has been given it to cook” (I.26.151/134). Only the philosophical mode of pedagogy, Montaigne muses, is capable of producing “sociable wisdom” which creates an alliance between body and soul.

This philosophical mode promotes health, according to Montaigne, because it “recouples” body and soul. This is precisely what philosophy is for: theory cannot be “detached from lived experience.” Philosophy is neither a subject studied in the academy nor a genre of writing with technical jargon, nor even a procedure of argumentation. For Montaigne, philosophy is a virtue that dwells in the soul and makes the body healthy, producing the effect of “tranquility and gladness” on the practitioner.

Ruminations takes inspiration from Montaigne’s understanding of pedagogy and philosophy. We are a research group, a collective that creates “exploratory journeys” and aims at “sociable wisdom.” Ruminations proposes to think about the practices of nourishing ourselves and each other. And we wonder: How are thinking and eating entangled in/as rumination? Can ruminations in all its senses be experienced as sociable wisdom? This is a reading group that is as much about the food as it is about reading, writing, conversing, and thinking.

Designing the Pluriversity

This participatory research project is inspired by Arturo Escobar’s work on design as a practice that recognizes the interconnectedness of knowledge, institutions, and lived experience. Escobar’s approach highlights how design—whether of objects, tools, policies, or educational frameworks—actively shapes ways of thinking and being. We apply this to the institutional structures of the university: if the traditional “uni-versity” is historically rooted in a universal framework, then the “pluri-versity” is a less constrained approach to knowledge and inquiry. Rather than presupposing a one-size-fits-all model of knowledge, this initiative examines how universities can encourage engagement with a range of knowledge traditions, cultivate expansive approaches to knowledge production that support academic excellence, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and responsiveness to global challenges.

“Designing the Pluriversity” has invited a group of international artists, scholars, activists, and educators to submit provocations that facilitate conversation and collaboration toward designing a pluriversity. We invite you to respond in any form—writing, art, or action—experimenting with new ways of thinking and learning together. This project imagines the university differently—a world where many worlds fit. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis and will be collected on the “Designing the Pluriversity” website.

Projects

Designing the Pluriversity

This participatory research project is inspired by Arturo Escobar’s work on design as a practice that recognizes the interconnectedness of knowledge, institutions, and lived experience. Escobar’s approach highlights how design—whether of objects, tools, policies, or educational frameworks—actively shapes ways of thinking and being. We apply this to the institutional structures of the university: if the traditional “uni-versity” is historically rooted in a universal framework, then the “pluri-versity” is a less constrained approach to knowledge and inquiry. Rather than presupposing a one-size-fits-all model of knowledge, this initiative examines how universities can encourage engagement with a range of knowledge traditions, cultivate expansive approaches to knowledge production that support academic excellence, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and responsiveness to global challenges.

“Designing the Pluriversity” has invited a group of international artists, scholars, activists, and educators to submit provocations that facilitate conversation and collaboration toward designing a pluriversity. We invite you to respond in any form—writing, art, or action—experimenting with new ways of thinking and learning together. This project imagines the university differently—a world where many worlds fit. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis and will be collected on the “Designing the Pluriversity” website.

Ruminations

In Michel de Montaigne’s Essais, he contrasts two types of pedagogy using food metaphors. On the one hand, the didactic mode of teaching “is a sign of rawness and indigestion to disgorge food just as we swallowed it. The stomach has not done its work.” In the philosophical mode of pedagogy, on the other hand, one chews slowly, digests fully and thus “changes the condition and form of what has been given it to cook” (I.26.151/134). Only the philosophical mode of pedagogy, Montaigne muses, is capable of producing “sociable wisdom” which creates an alliance between body and soul.

Stacey Moran speaks, seated at a table during an event. A slide on a screen behind her says "ruminative epistemology."

This philosophical mode promotes health, according to Montaigne, because it “recouples” body and soul. This is precisely what philosophy is for: theory cannot be “detached from lived experience.” Philosophy is neither a subject studied in the academy nor a genre of writing with technical jargon, nor even a procedure of argumentation. For Montaigne, philosophy is a virtue that dwells in the soul and makes the body healthy, producing the effect of “tranquility and gladness” on the practitioner.

Ruminations takes inspiration from Montaigne’s understanding of pedagogy and philosophy. We are a research group, a collective that creates “exploratory journeys” and aims at “sociable wisdom.” Ruminations proposes to think about the practices of nourishing ourselves and each other. And we wonder: How are thinking and eating entangled in/as rumination? Can ruminations in all its senses be experienced as sociable wisdom? This is a reading group that is as much about the food as it is about reading, writing, conversing, and thinking.

Epistolary Epistemologies

“Epistolary Epistemologies” is a feminist collective writing project that draws on the epistolary tradition to generate creative and reflective practices of feminist critique in the digital era.

Integrating arts research and humanities, the project aims to create what Stefano Harney and Fred Moten outline scholarship as “a kind of sociality” and “activity of rehearsal,” that draws attention to the ways in which personal letter-writing is “already intellectual,” and needs no application to make it theoretical. This auto-theoretical practice explores how “the personal is theoretical.”

Built-environment Institute for Applied Studies in Africa and the Middle East

BIAS-AME is a continuing education institute that focuses on the Built Environment in Africa and the Middle East. Moving away from siloed educational models, it aims to reorient the pedagogical approach towards an interdisciplinary learning model that addresses historic and precarious urban landscapes, climate change, and spatial justice.It provides participants with both theoretical tools and practical skills to engage with the diverse challenges of on-ground problems. This multi-model pedagogical system deploys critical thinking, applied education, networking, capacity building, and creative forms of partnerships with other entities and institutions.

Initiative Director

Stacey Moran is Assistant Professor in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Department of English at Arizona State University. Her work lies at the intersections of feminist theory and technoscience, design studies, and critical pedagogy. Moran has published articles on the critical studies of feminism and technology, technoscience and design, and the rhetorics of materialist philosophy, and is the author of "The Stranger Within: Barad Beyond Barad" (forthcoming). Moran is a member of the Center for Philosophical Technologies, directs a design summer school in the Netherlands, and collaborates with the School of Materialist Research. She also maintains a creative practice that examines the relation between design, mythology and material practices.

Events

Faculty Flash Talks | TBD

Artist Talk: Jac Howard on Critical Theory and Art Practice | October 16

"Theory Schmeory" Workshop | October 2025

Theory Schmeory is a low-stress, high-curiosity workshop series for grad students who want to explore the major “isms” in critical and cultural theory—from materialism to postcolonialism, psychoanalysis to queer theory. But without the gatekeeping. We’ll meet monthly to demystify foundational ideas, read short selections together, and connect theory to what’s happening around us, whether it’s in media, politics, personal experience, or classroom dynamics.

Applied Theory

Upcoming events

Projects

Built-environment Institute for Applied Studies in Africa and the Middle East

Epistolary Epistemologies

Ruminations

Designing the Pluriversity

Projects

Designing the Pluriversity

Ruminations

Epistolary Epistemologies

Built-environment Institute for Applied Studies in Africa and the Middle East

Initiative Director

Events