Why Cultural Studies?

Why Cultural Studies? is a rallying call for a reinvigoration of the project of cultural studies. Rodman argues that cultural studies practitioners need to focus on the lessons embedded in the project’s past while also reinventing how cultural studies is currently being done, in order to ensure that it has a vibrant and viable future. The book argues in favor of cultural studies as an intellectual and political pursuit, but contends that it is not, and never should be, solely an academic subject.  Rather, it is a project that is open to contributions from academics and non–academics alike. Rodman asserts the need for cultural studies to revive its understanding of itself as a politically interventionist project that has an important role to play in promoting social justice and building a better world. Written by one of the leading figures of the project, Why Cultural Studies? is an impassioned polemic that sets out to ensure the future of cultural studies, and that will prove to be a vital and provocative text for cultural studies practitioners of all sorts.

Gilbert B. Rodman is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota. His publications include Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend (1996), Race in Cyberspace (2000), and The Race and Media Reader (2014). He is currently the Chair of the Association for Cultural Studies, and the founder/manager of CULTSTUD–L, the longest running international cultural studies listserv in the world.