WueGlobal - Cultural Studies around the World: Theories of Engaged Scholarship Between National and Transnational Frameworks

Since its inception in mid-20th-century Britain, the field of cultural studies has undergone significant transformations: while starting out as a distinctly national discourse of British self-ethnography and democratic empowerment, it also took up influences from continental Europe and was quick to be adopted and modified in many parts of the world. Today, it is common practice to conceive of the various strands of cultural studies according to a vocabulary of related, but fundamentally different and compartmentalized sub-divisions (such as ‘American Cultural Studies’ vs ‘British Cultural Studies’).

The overarching goal of this seminar is to develop both an understanding and a critical re-examination of these lines of division in their historical and current forms. By taking into close consideration [1] theoretical foundations like Marxism and structuralism as well as [2] the past and present of cultural studies in India along with [3] key texts from the two formations of ‘British’ and ‘American Cultural Studies’, we hope to enable a discussion of the problems and merits surrounding these ‘nationally specific’ per-spectives. Finally, it remains to be seen whether this kind of compartmentalization is inevitable, or whether cultural studies might also be configured as a transnational or global field of research and critical intervention.

The transnational format of the course (WueGlobal):

As the pandemic forces us to conduct most seminars via online platforms, we have decided to make a virtue of necessity and would be delighted to welcome students from our Indian partner institutions (esp. from Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia) into the course. The idea is to enliven the discourse and widen the horizon not only by taking into account texts from ‘around the world,’ but by having students and scholars of culture with varying backgrounds and experiences work together.  

The colloquium concludes with a "Study Day" on July 7th in which students will have the opportunity to present original work and perspectives.

This course is part of "WueGlobal - Writing, Learning, Digital Connection" funded by the International Virtual Academic Collaboration Program (IVAC) / Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) / Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF).

Students participating in the course will recieve a WueGlobal Certificate. Please visit the WueGlobal website for more information.

The seminar will generally take place as a full two-hour synchronous class meeting every other week via Zoom. In the weeks between these Zoom meetings students will be engaged in asynchronous writing-based interaction mediated through the shared WueCampus learning platform.