Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

If your registration for this course is successful you will registered automatically for the course Historische Soziologie - S (Felix Fink).

This seminar introduces Cultural Studies, as it emerged in Britain in the 1950s and 60s. It looks at the ideas and approaches that shaped it (including those associated with the ‘New Left’), it’s development as an academic field, and the ways in which it has been taken up by others. Students will engage with the work of some of the key figures within (British) Cultural Studies, including Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Dick Hebdige and Angela McRobbie. We will look at how these authors have variously drawn on (and re-thought) Karl Marx’s account of the relationship between (economic) ‘base’ and (political/ideological) ‘superstructure’, Louis Althusser’s work on ‘ideology’ (and ‘ideological state apparatuses’), and Antonio Gramsci’s notion of ‘hegemony’. Students will also explore the resonances and dissonances between Cultural Studies related fields, including Queer Studies, Transgender Studies and Post-Colonial Studies.

• Develop an understanding of the history, trajectories, and legacies of Cultural Studies in Britain, the U.S. and beyond.
• Gain an understanding of the key intellectual influences on the main figures associated with Cultural Studies, as well as the influences these figures have subsequently had on others.
• Critically reflect on the contribution made by Cultural Studies to our understanding of: class; power; hegemony; youth-, pop-, and sub-culture; deviance and moral panic; gender; race; media; everyday life; and ideology.

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