After the Disciplines

Since the late 1960s, both internationally and locally, we have witnessed the growth of subject areas outside the traditional liberal arts curriculum and disciplinary structure of the university curriculum: Black Studies (or Indigenous Studies), Feminist or Women's Studies, Critical Legal Studies, Film & Media Studies, Gay Studies, and Cultural Studies are some of the most popular. The principles underlying a global neo-liberalism and managerialism were responsible for restructuring universities during the 1980s. Some thought that such developments imperiled the humanities, while others believed that the context of globalization and the development of new communications technologies offered new hope for both interdisciplinary work and the emergence of a critical approach.

The book asks the following broad questions: What are the underlying historical, epistemological, and political reasons for the emergence of cultural studies? What do these developments imply for the traditional liberal arts curriculum and the traditional discipline-based university? To what extent does the emergence of cultural studies displace or dislocate traditional disciplines? What forms of resistance has cultural studies encountered, and why? To what extent does the emergence of cultural studies reflect a changing mission of the university and changing relations between the university and the wider society? What is the future of cultural studies?

MICHAEL PETERS is Professor of Education, Auckland University, New Zealand.