Cultural Studies

The study of culture is at the heart of the humanities and social sciences. Each discipline outlines a specific way of defining culture, a specific set of research questions, and a specific way to collect and analyze evidence. Though it is an interdisciplinary formation, American Studies, too, is marked by specific ways of approaching the study of culture. In contemporary American Studies, this approach is rooted in the approach that was first developed at the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. This course serves as an introduction to cultural studies, with a particular focus on the concept of “structures of feeling,” as proposed by the Welsh critic Raymond Williams.