Welcome to Cultural Studies

Critical and Cultural Studies investigates how we represent ourselves to each other.

In Critical and Cultural Studies, we investigate everyday life for what it reveals about who we are and how we live. From art to the iPod, literature to fashion, high theory to pop culture, graffiti to multimedia, and from tattooing to writing, performance, film and television, all our cultural practices reveal how we make meaning, how we organise our social and political relationships and how we identify ourselves. The analysis of culture provides insights into how ideas arise, how meanings are made and how they are communicated. In the Information Age, everyone is a "content provider", whether it's at work or on MySpace. Both rigorous and creative, Critical and Cultural Studies will help you understand the day-to-day practices of communication and representation. The Department draws on this approach to provide innovative ways of teaching practical units in performance and creative writing.

Drawing on a wide range of traditions in the humanities and social sciences, critical and cultural studies trains students in the analytical techniques and skills in research and argument that will prepare them for careers in fields like the media, public and private sector administration and policy development, education, the creative arts and digital communication. The Department offers an innovative and dynamic Honours program, with the prospect of postgraduate study opportunities, in both of which students develop their skills of enquiry and analysis in projects they design themselves.