Is Cultural Studies about studying cultures?
Good question. The short answer is ‘no’. The long answer: ‘yes’. One spends a great deal of time in Cultural Studies reading and reflecting on the texts, the artefacts, the histories of the European tradition (Greece, Rome, Europe). However, in the first place, one of the aims of Cultural Studies is to explore the diversities of this tradition, the ways in which there is extraordinary cultural difference within this tradition. And in the second place, it can be argued that in order to honestly study a different cultural tradition, one must first be adept at analysing one’s ‘own’ tradition as if from the outside. Otherwise, one risks projecting one’s own prejudices and fantasies on the culture in question, and learning very little of substance about it in the end. We encourage our students to learn a foreign language, and to take time before, during or after the degree to get to know a different culture or a different aspect of this one in depth (gap year, etc.).
