About Cultural Studies

What is Cultural Studies?

“Culture” refers to the ideas we have and the values we hold, as well as the common way of life we share. Culture is the mode of expression and communication shared among individuals living in definite contexts at a particular point in history. Culture promotes social bonding and interaction, and as such frames human historical understanding as these experiences of community and communication accumulate. It helps us to define our social existence, and instills identity to the communities we live in and in which relations of value and power are vested.

As a new discipline, Cultural Studies includes the analysis of a wide range of works including literature, film, art, popular culture, commodity and media culture, the social and political “text” of a particular way of life, and intellectual and socio-cultural movements as well as other living forms of social practice. Informed by critical theories and contextual analyses, Cultural Studies examines the changing relationship between culture, society, history, politics and technology in the contemporary world. Cultural Studies allows us to understand the key problems of human creativity, social ideology and cultural consumption in the contexts of local history and global transformation. All these forces will be pivotal in the development of our cultural imagination, cultural education and cultural policies in the years ahead.