Meets with CMCL C626 and CULS C601.  This course serves as an introduction
to cultural studies. It is open to graduate students at any level who wish
to incorporate the perspective of cultural studies into their work.  The
course will feature perspectives from several disciplines and political
theories.  In the first half of the course, readings will concentrate on,
but will not be limited to, the theory and scholarship of the Birmingham
Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (where Stuart Hall has developed
key concepts for cultural critics) and its predecessors such as Raymond
Williams.  In the second half of the course, readings will focus on "The
Popular" and "The Postcolonial."  These will balance  a range of theoretical
works, especially feminist theory, with ethnographic and textual studies and
ones that reflect a cultural  studies approach to media and politics.

Each week, students will be expected to bring to class one-two pages of
material for discussion (questions and issues) developed in response to the
readings.  In addition, students will write two
short papers (12 pp.)  These should apply perspectives from the critical
theories we have read to a specific phenomenon in contemporary popular
culture (ethnographic, textual, media, politics). The choice of subject may
be drawn from the class readings or from an event or text in contemporary
culture.