About

The Βι¶ΉΣ³»­ Centre for Cultural Studies embodies the very best of the cultural studies tradition.

It is committed to interdisciplinarity in the study of new cultural formations within and beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. The Centre encompasses expertise from many disciplines including: Media, Sociology, English, History, Anthropology, Philosophy, Film Studies and has established its reputation both nationally and internationally.

A protest at Brick Lane

Broadly, the Centre’s approach to cultural studies:

  • has a historical dimension, not only looking at contemporary culture but also at culture from a historical perspective;
  • is global in outlook, looking at culture in the Global South as well as in the Global North and the relationship between them; and,
  • is concerned with both 'popular’ culture - film and television, pop music, fashion and food etc. and 'high' culture - the arts, literature, etc. 

These principles make Cultural Studies at Βι¶ΉΣ³»­ uniquely comparative: across time, across cultures and across the boundary of 'high' and 'popular' culture. 

The work of the Centre contributes to research led teaching in .

The aims of the Centre are:

  1. to foster a strong intellectual environment for scholars working in Cultural Studies internationally and nationally in order to support robust research in the discipline and to enhance collegiality more broadly;
  2. to bring together a range of faculty across, and beyond, the University, to work within the interdisciplinary framework exemplified in Cultural Studies research;
  3. to consolidate undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment in the subject, particularly postgraduate researchers, providing a thorough institutional pathway in the discipline;
  4. to collectively foster research in Cultural Studies by providing focus and increasing the visibility and reputation of our existing expertise on a national and international scale and facilitating intellectual collaboration;
  5. to provide research support and mentoring in order to improve our research activity in Cultural Studies, particularly in the supervision and mentoring of research students and early career scholars;
  6. to augment disciplinary expertise for curricular development in order to deliver informed course teaching at the highest level.

What we do

Through our work, we aim to embody the key values of cultural studies while being responsive to an ever-changing cultural and political landscape. 

  • Events and seminars 
  • Conferences 
  • Visiting Fellows
  • Developing links with organisations such as the Stuart Hall Foundation (including hosting Stuart Hall Fellowship) 
  • Collaborations with other Universities and local communities

We are committed to ethical and decolonial forms of learning and observation, to a practice of knowledge that can engage with politics and power at the local, organisational, and global level. We aim to foster an environment informed by principles of curiosity, passion, compassion, social justice, empathy and critical thinking.