ci-topic-selection

Topic Selection & Fit (ci-topic-selection)

Critical Inquiry is the discipline-crossing flagship of criticism and theory in the arts and humanities. The bar is not "a smart reading no one has done" — it is "a theoretical intervention that reorients a conversation across fields." Use this skill to pressure-test fit before you invest.

When to trigger

• Choosing among possible projects or framings for a CI essay
• A reader said the piece feels "like a seminar paper" or "department-internal"
• Deciding between a full Article and a Critical Response
• Wondering whether the project is really theory, or just an able reading

The CI fit test

A strong CI essay usually clears all four:

1. An intervention, not a reading. It changes how readers think about a concept, a practice, a period, or a medium — it does not merely interpret one more text competently.
2. Interdisciplinary stakes. A scholar in a different field (an art historian reading a literary essay; a philosopher reading a film essay) should see why it matters. The claim travels.
3. Theory doing real work. A concept (from theory, philosophy, or the essay's own coinage) is put to work on objects and earns its keep — not name-dropped (see ci-theory-and-method).
4. Ambition proportionate to scope. A large, genuinely interesting claim, made answerable within ~9,500 words (notes included) — neither a grand gesture without objects nor a tiny point.

Reach past your home field (CI is interdisciplinary by design)

Home field	Reach across the disciplines by…
Literary study	make the stakes conceptual, not only textual — what does the reading do to a theory?
Art / visual culture	draw the argument about images, seeing, or mediation that a non-art-historian needs
Film / media	tie the case to general questions of form, technology, temporality, or attention
Philosophy / aesthetics	ground the concept in objects or cases, not only in the literature of the concept
Politics / history	show the conceptual or critical stakes, not just the empirical record

Format choice

• Article — full argument, broad theoretical claim, ≤ 9,500 words (incl. notes and all bibliographical information).
• Critical Response — a focused reply to or debate with a published CI piece, ≤ 3,000 words; it argues, it does not summarize (see ci-argument-and-intervention).
• Review — a short notice, ≤ 500 words.

Anti-patterns

• "No one has read X through theorist Y" as the whole contribution (a reading, not an intervention)
• A literature survey or state-of-the-field with no claim of its own
• A grand theoretical gesture with no object to test it on
• A department-internal point with no reason for another field to care

Output format

【Project】one sentence
【Intervention】what it changes for readers (not "what it reads")
【Interdisciplinary stakes】who outside the home field cares, and why
【Theory at work】the concept and the object it acts on
【Format】Article / Critical Response / Review
【Fit verdict】strong / needs reframing / off-fit (why)
【Next】ci-scholarly-positioning

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — primary objects, theory shelf, archives and image sources
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — CI scope, formats, and word caps