Cultural Studies 50 Years On

Kieran Connell is a Lecturer in Contemporary British History at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published on subjects including race, immigration, photography and the New Left in post-war Britain and has co-curated exhibitions on the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and the photographs of Janet Mendelsohn. Previously he worked at the Open University and the University of Birmingham.Matthew Hilton is Professor of Social History at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of several books including Smoking in British Popular Culture (Manchester, 2000), Prosperity for All: Consumer Activism in an Era of Globalisation (Cornell, 2009) and The Politics of Expertise: How NGOs Shaped Modern Britain (Oxford, 2013). He is an editor of Past and Present and is currently researching the history of humanitarianism and international aid and development.

• Introduction: Cultural Studies 50 Years on, Kieran Connell and Matthew Hilton / Part I: Situating the Centre / 1. The Lost World of Cultural Studies: An Intellectual History, Dennis Dworkin / 2. Conjuncture and the Politics of Knowledge – CCCS, 1968-1984, Geoff Eley / 3. Cultural Studies at Birmingham 1985-2002 – The Last Decade, Ann Gray / 4. Cultural Studies on the Margins: the CCCS in Birmingham and Beyond, Kieran Connell and Matthew Hilton / Part II: Pedagogy and Practices / 5. 'Reading for tone'; Searching for Method and Meaning , Ros Brunt / 6. Hierarchies and Beyond? Staff, Students and the Making of Cultural Studies in Birmingham, John Clarke / 7. Theory, Politics and Practice: Then and Now, Tony Jefferson / 8. Seeking Interdisciplinarity: The Promise and Premise of Cultural Studies, Larry Grossberg / Part III: Politics / 9. The Centre’s Marxism(s): ‘A little Modest Work of Reconstruction’?, Gregor McLennan / 10. CCCS and the Disturbance that was Feminism, Maureen McNeil / 11. Feminism and Cultural St

In this thoughtful and wide-ranging collection, Kieran Connell and Matthew Hilton have brought together leading practitioners and first-rate scholars in the field of cultural studies to reflect on and chart the important histories, legacies, practices, and politics of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and with it the whole radical intellectual project of cultural studies. The outcome is a vital, illuminating, and robust intervention that no scholar or student interested in the past, present, and future of cultural studies can afford to ignore!