Site Accessibility Statement
Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty of Arts
November 20, 2009
 
 
Canadian Excellence
Laurier Home Faculty of Arts Cultural Studies
 

Bridging the humanities and social sciences, Cultural Studies is a field of study that takes high, popular, and everyday culture as its subject matter. In other words, Cultural Studies is interested in the analysis of art and literature, science and technology, media and popular texts, and the meanings and practices that constitute ordinary life. It understands that such phenomena cannot be studied in isolation, but must be related to larger issues in society, such as class, gender, sexuality, race, power, and the shape of history. Appropriately given its wide mandate, cultural studies is inter- and multi-disciplinary, borrowing from a number of disciplines such as English, sociology, anthropology, communication studies, geography, music, etc. Research in this field has included topics as wide-ranging as youth and subculture, globalization, identity, theme parks, music, visual culture, the culture of work and play, the analysis of social rituals, values, and belief systems, and popular culture's role in social change.

UNDERGRADUATE ACADEMIC ADVISING

Dr. Peter Urquhart, Program Co-ordinator
ext. 4150    DAWB 3-143

OFFICE HOURS

Monday and Thursday 12:30 - 1:30 pm
or by appointment

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Cultural Studies 100 and Cultural Studies 101 are two interdisciplinary core courses that introduce students to the dynamic and innovative Cultural Studies Program at Laurier. These courses are team-taught and feature invited speakers to lecture on the study of culture.

Through an exploration of the forces that produce what culture validates as knowledge, the Cultural Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University—beginning with KS 100 and KS 101— fosters cultural literacy, encourages students to develop critical insights into the world in which we live and to communicate these insights clearly and effectively.

To this end, KS 100 and KS 101 introduces students to new ways of “reading” culture that are adequate to the world’s complexity and will allow students to combine their work in Cultural Studies with a variety of other, already established, programs at WLU.