Cultural Studies

Cultural studies explores how meaning is generated, distributed, and developed in different societies and social contexts. By now, the field itself has developed into an interdisciplinary research agenda which can be differentiated into multifold regional implementations, ranging, for example, from the German tradition of Kulturwissenschaft, the British (Marxist influenced) school of cultural studies, with an emphasis on the study of popular culture, to the interdisciplinary approach in American studies, which combines the study of North American histories and cultures. As students of English in Flensburg, you will begin your exploration of cultural studies by learning about selected aspects of British and/or North American history, society and politics as a foundation for your understanding of British and American cultures. This might involve seminars dealing with how specific historical moments and their cultural representation shaped national cultures (for example, the Declaration of Independence or ‘9/11’ in the U.S. or the Glorious Revolution or ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in the British context). In the course of your further studies, you will be exposed to different concepts of culture, models of cultural contact (including an examination of transnational and intercultural exchanges and processes of Othering), and ways of ‘reading’ culture and cultural artifacts, with a special focus on how to interpret audio-visual media such as film, TV, and visual arts within their specific socio-historic and cultural contexts.