Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies is a field that analyzes and critiques culture. Culture is understood both as a way of life encompassing ideas, attitudes, languages, behaviors, institutions and structures of power and a range of other cultural practices that include such things as expressive, communicative, and creative acts. Cultural Studies promotes the study of culture in all its varied forms and does so from an interdisciplinary perspective. It studies the dimension of everyday culture, but is not limited to them nor is it merely the study of the contemporary or the western. Cultural Studies examines the collaborations, borrowings, and conjoinings of diverse traditions and encourages cross-cultural dialogue, appreciation, and understanding.

Cultural Studies itself produces not the objects of art and media, but rather creates the space and the dialogue essential for the development of progressive, intelligent products. Cultural Studies fosters awareness of the world (the way it works and does not work) and promotes informed decisions in these places where arts and media are created, collected, consumed, and studied.


Columbia College's Cultural Studies program is unusual in two ways: it is one of the few such programs for undergraduates in the country and degree requirements are designed to work in conjunction with existing programs in the visual, performing, and media arts. By making the most of the synergy between theory and practice, students in the program will explore and research culture in its richly varied forms and processes.


A major in Cultural Studies can prepare students for careers in community arts and cultural organizations, art and science museums, regional and ethnic museums, local, state and federal arts and cultural agencies, popular arts settings, cultural tourism, policy and research institutes, and for graduate studies in a variety of disciplines. The major's internship experience can help prepare students for future employment in these settings by integrating academic and professional components of the degree.

Cultural Studies major Phil Bratta traveled to Camp Home in New Orleans during Spring Break 2008.  Read about his travels here.