The crossroads of political, social, popular and economic aspects of life now has official status as a University program.
Cultural studies, the examination of how cultural practices and representations affect individuals and how individuals in turn negotiate culture, became a University program July 1. It has existed for two years as an undergraduate major offered under interdisciplinary studies, but raising its stature to the program level gives it new life, said Acting Director Della Pollock.
"We are involving faculty from many different disciplines and schools," said Pollock, associate professor of communication studies. "The point is for different disciplines to engage each other in a dialogue about how culture operates in every aspect of our social lives."
For example, Pollock said, illness has religious, medical and social implications, to name a few. Cultural studies would look at all of these to see how they fit together and how they affect one another.
The program involves faculty not just from the College of Arts and Sciences, but from the schools of Education, Journalism and Mass Communication, Law, Information and Library Sciences, Medicine and Public Health.
The courses offered in conjunction with the program will be interdisciplinary, Pollock said, "courses that are essentially concerned with culture and power and that address a broad range of cultural issues."
Such courses could deal with theoretical developments, politics of identity, cultural history and the historiography of culture, among other topics.
She sees the program as a way to attract talented students and professors to the University.
"We are well-positioned, because of the faculty already on campus, to become if not the top, a leading program nationally and internationally in cultural studies," she said. "The program allows the University to maximize the resources it already has, so it's an extraordinarily cost-effective investment."
Interim Provost Richard Richardson agreed.
"The cultural studies program is sure to have a major impact on teaching and research at Carolina," he said. "This is a exciting intellectual venture."
Discussions across disciplines
One of the reasons cultural studies is attracting increasing interest across the nation is the rising importance of interdisciplinary studies, Pollock said. "What the program hopes to do is provide opportunities for faculty to act and to interact across academic boundaries."
As a program, cultural studies is an independent administrative unit, but has neither its own faculty nor its own degree offerings, Pollock said. But unlike most other units with program status, cultural studies will offer courses and coordinate majors.
The program won't be exclusively for undergraduates--graduate students enrolled in related departments will be able to concentrate in it, although cultural studies will not award graduate degrees. "It would almost be counterproductive to have a Ph.D. in cultural studies," said Pollock, explaining that the point is to study the overlaps of multiple fields.
Although some courses will be offered directly by the program, most will be in established departments such as communication studies, political science, English, sociology and history.
Lecture series
One of the ways the program will meet its goal for campus interaction is through sponsoring lectures, all of which will be free and open to the public, Pollock said.
Besides bringing new ideas to campus and giving the program increased visibility, the lectures "will give faculty and students the opportunity to engage in conversations with each other and with leading members of the field," Pollock said.
The 1995-96 series begins with Stuart Hall, former director of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. Following him will be Tony Bennett, author of Outside Literature; Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic; Vron Ware, author of Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism, and History; and Catherine Hall, author of White Male in the Middle Class.
A 1996-97 series will focus on medical cultures, and will complement designated course offerings, including a graduate-level seminar in medical anthropology and an upper level undergraduate course in social medicine and history.
"The series will bring together scholars and practitioners from medicine with their counterparts in the humanities and social sciences in an interdisciplinary attempt to consider the challenges medicine and American society pose for each other," Pollock said. "The concern is to learn from, as well as to break through, the differences between medicine and the humanities that all too often prevent such discussion."
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