Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies - The University of Birmingham - Edgbaston, Birmingham, U.K. - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

A blue plaque to mark the landmark founding of the Centre for Contmemporary Cultural Studies in 1964 or the study of 'mass' culture.

The plaque can be found outside the main entreance to the Muirhead Tower building

Professor Richard Hoggart in 1962 in his inaurgual lecture following his appointment as Professor of English at the Unviversity of Birmingham declared that 'he intended to build on the success of his seminal book 'The Uses of Literacy' and conduct research into 'mass' culture. Within two years, Hoggart had founded the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies."
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'The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. From 1964 to 2002, the Centre played a "critical" role in developing the field of cultural studies.

History
The Centre was the focus for what became known as the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, or, more generally, 'British cultural studies'. After its first director, Richard Hoggart departed in 1968, the Centre was led by Stuart Hall (1969–1979). He was succeeded by Richard Johnson (1980–1987). The Birmingham CCCS approach to culture and politics evolved from a complex moment within British post-war history: the rise of the anti-Stalinist New Left; the promotion of adult education in Britain after World War II; the "Americanization" of British popular culture and the growth of mass communication in the decades after 1945; the growing multiculturalism of British society; and, the eventual influence within British academia of new critical methods like semiotics and structuralism. Drawing on a variety of influences (feminism, structuralism, Marxism — especially the work of Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci, sociology, critical race theory, and post-structuralism), over the course of several decades the Centre pioneered a variety of approaches to the study of culture, including: ideological analysis; studies of working-class cultures and subcultures; the role of media audiences; feminist cultural research; hegemonic struggles in state politics; and the place of race in social and cultural processes. Notable Centre books include Off-Centre: Feminism and Cultural Studies, Resistance through Rituals, The Empire Strikes Back, Border Patrols: Policing the Boundaries of Heterosexuality. The history of this development can be found in the series of stencilled occasional papers the Centre published between 1973 and 1988. To mark the 50th anniversary of the CCCS's founding, the University of Birmingham—in collaboration with former members of staff at the Centre, including Richard Johnson, Stuart Hall and Michael Green—created an archive of CCCS-related material at the Cadbury Research Library at Birmingham.' (visit link)

'Given the University of Birmingham’s earlier hostility towards Hall and the Centre there was an irony to its decision in 2011 to include the Centre in its Blue Plaque scheme in celebration of ground-breaking academic work undertaken at Birmingham. When Centre alumni visit campus they often take photographs of the plaque which, in a further irony for a tribute to a body of work so influenced by various strands of Marxism, is housed next door to a Starbuck’s coffee shop. But there is also a certain fittingness to the plaque honouring the Centre as a collective enterprise rather than the sum of individual efforts.' (visit link)

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Blue Plaque managing agency: The University of Birmingham Physical Address: The University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham, United Kingdom B15 2TT Web Address: [Web Link] Individual Recognized: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/19/2019 Poole/Freeman visited it