Traces the history of cultural studies from its debated foundation through the Birmingham school in post-war Britain, to its reshaping by post-Marxist, postmodernist, feminist, postcolonial, and diasporic perspectives. Analyzes the key debates in cultural studies at the onset of the twenty-first century, which include the field’s reorientation towards the study of popular culture, activism through cultural politics, the politicization of knowledge and of the academy, and “the cultural turn” of the humanities and social sciences.