SO4D4 Half Unit
Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jana Reynolds
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Culture and Society. This course is available on the MA in Modern History. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). Students who have this course as a compulsory course are guaranteed a place. Other than for students for whom the course is a ccompulsory course, places are allocated based on a written statement. This may mean that not all students who apply will be able to get a place on this course.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). Students who have this course as a core course are guaranteed a place. Other than for students for whom the course is a core course, places are allocated based on a written statement. This may mean that not all students who apply will be able to get a place on this course.
Course content
Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms considers recent developments in cultural analysis in sociology and beyond, focusing on queer, crip and more-than-human approaches. This course aims to foster ways of thinking that move beyond the idea of culture as a strictly human pursuit and practice and undo the "nature vs culture" dichotomy that implicitly dominated much of the earlier (20th century) cultural theories. It invites students to engage with works of art and philosophy as well as sociological writing, and to consider cultural forms that embody, or lend themselves to, non-anthropocentric approaches to culture. Such cultural forms may include cultural objects, cultural practices, cultural institutions, or cultural attitudes. Each week course materials will include both "Cultural Theory" (i.e., theoretical readings) and "Cultural Forms" (i.e., artworks, artists' texts and films, viral videos, memes or media articles discussing particular practices or objects). The latter are meant as case studies that can be analysed and critiqued using the theories we read.
Teaching
10 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
All students are expected to submit one piece of non-assessed written work and prepare seminar presentations.
Indicative reading
Ahmed, S. 2004. "Affective economies", Social text, 22: 117-139.
Barad, K. (2014) Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart, Parallax, 20:3, 168-187.
Braidotti, R. (2013) The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Freeman, E. (2010) ‘Introduction: Queer and Not Now’, in Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Halberstam, J. (2005). In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: NYU Press.
Kafer, A. (2013) Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
Latour, B. (2004) Why Has Critique Run out of Steam?: From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry 30 (Winter 2004), 225–248.
Mignolo, W. D. (2014) 'Chapter 4. Sylvia Wynter: What Does It Mean to Be Human?' in On Being Human as Praxis, edited by Katherine McKittrick, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp.106-123.
Tsing, A. L. (2015) The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 5000 words) in May
Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.
Key facts
Department: Sociology
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.