Critical and Cultural Studies combines the study of culture with a focus on the critical theories we use to describe and analyse that culture. In other words, we explore through film, multimedia, television, video/DVD's, magazines, books, literature, graffiti, art, internet, etc. the ways in which we communicate ideas, arguments, opinions, values and feelings to each other and about each other in today's world. We also explore where those ideas, arguments, values, and feelings derive from, how they affect us in our everyday lives, how they shape the workings of government and politics, industry, cultural productions, and the interactions of private citizens.

Units in Critical and Cultural Studies ask:

• what kinds of frameworks can we use to think about the operation of our society?
• how can we understand different cultural practices and products?
• how can we conceptualise our own roles as individuals in today's complex society?
• what does it mean to be an individual social subject?
• what are the social and cultural implications of the ways we read and view texts of all kinds - TV, video, film, books, magazines, multimedia?
• what meanings do we make when we produce our own texts?
• how might people from different socio-cultural backgrounds read or view texts differently?

It is the combination of critical frameworks to analyse culture that makes Critical and Cultural Studies the literacy of the 21st century.

About Critical and Cultural Studies Students

Our focus is on producing students who are:

• critical thinkers
• excellent communicators - orally, verbally and visually
• independent and resourceful workers, who are also
• able to work effectively in a team
• sensitive to cultural differences
• are flexible and embrace ambiguity and complexity.