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CULTURAL STUDIES


Popular (or pop or 'low') culture (Latin etymology, 'the culture of the people') consists of those elements not normally valued as part of so-called 'high' culture but which prevail, at least numerically, in any given society.  Expressed more often than not in that society's vernacular language and / or an established lingua franca, popular culture is thought to encompass any number of mundane day to day practices (the ways people do specific everyday things such as cooking, eating, watching television, etc.) and objects (e.g. clothing, comic books, romance novels, the various mass media [cinema, television, the Internet, etc.], popular entertainment [such as gaming, sports, Hollywood], etc.).  These are most often interpreted as if they constitute 'texts' of various kinds and treated as ideological products inseparable from questions of class, gender and / or race.  Though popular culture is often contrasted with a more exclusive, even elitist 'high culture' (e.g. the poetry of Milton or the drama of Shakespeare), the barriers often assumed to separate them have in recent times broken down, accompanied by an explosion of scholarly interest in popular culture. 

Cultural Studies (or, perhaps more accurately, Popular Culture Studies) is the academic discipline concerned with interpreting the meaning of the various cultural practices and objects that comprise everyday life.  Cultural studies researchers often study the relationship between particular phenomena and matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender.  The term 'cultural studies' also sometimes serves as a synonym for 'area studies,' that is, the academic study of particular cultures such as Islamic studies, Asian studies, African American studies, African studies, Caribbean studies, German studies, etc.


ASSOCIATIONS

CONFERENCES

2009:

2008:

  • Seventh International Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Association for Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, July 3-7
  • Extremism and the Excluded Middle, 17th Annual Cultural Studies Conference, Department of English, Kansas State University, March 6-8

2007:

2006:

2005:

  • Sonic Interventions: Pushing the Boundaries of Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, March 29-31

  • Making Use of Culture, Inaugural Conference of the Cultural Theory Institute, University of Manchester, January 21-23

2004:

2003:

2002:

2001:

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2000:

Annual:

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COURSES

JOURNALS

PERSONS

SOURCES: PRIMARY

Off-Line:

  • Anthologies:

    • During, Simon, ed.  The Cultural Studies Reader.  London: Routledge, 1993.

    • Frow, John, and Meaghan Morris, eds.  Australian Cultural Studies: a Reader.  Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1993.

    • Grossberg, Lawrence, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler, eds.  Cultural Studies.  London: Routledge, 1992.

    • Munns, Jessica, and Gita Rajan, eds.  A Cultural Studies Reader: History, Theory, Practice.  London: Longman,1995.

  • Selected Individual Works:

    • Hoggart, Richard.  The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life with Special Reference to Publications and Entertainment.  Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.

    • Hebdige, Dick.  Sub-Culture: the Meaning of Style.  1979.

    • Thompson, E. P.  The Making of the English Working Class.

On-Line:

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SOURCES: SECONDARY

Off-Line:

  • Anthologies:

    • Irwin, William, and Jorge J. E. Gracia, eds.  Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007. [review]

  • Selected Individual Works:

    • Barker, Chris.  Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice.  London: Sage, 2003.
    • Brantlinger, Patrick.  Crusoe's Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America.  1990.
    • Culler, Jonathan.  "What is Cultural Studies?"  The Practice of Cultural Analysis: Exposing Interdisciplinary Interpretation.  Ed. Mieke Bal.  Stanford: Stanford UP, 1999.  335-347.
      Johnson, Richard.  "Multiplying Methods: From Pluralism to Combination."  Practice of Cultural Studies.  By Richard Johnson, et al.  London: Sage, 2004.  26-43.
    • Johnson, Richard, et al.  The Practice of Cultural Studies.  London: Sage, 2004.
    • Johnson, Richard.  "What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?"  Social Text 6.1 (1987): 38-80.
    • Miller, J. Hillis.  "What are Cultural Studies?"  Illustration.  Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1992.  13-19.
    • Storey, John.  An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
    • Turner, Graeme.  British Cultural Studies: an Introduction.  London: Routledge, 1990.

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