This free online course teaches you the linked development of literary and cultural studies. We analyze the concepts of ‘high’ culture, popular culture, subculture and counterculture while investigating the works of Richard Hoggart, E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall. We introduce you to the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of ‘game studies’ or ‘ludology’, the study of games, their players and the social and cultural issues they raise. It’s a new discipline that is related to cultural studies that is gaining momentum with the advent of digital games as a popular source of entertainment and significant cultural force. This course establishes the importance of computer games and unpacks the concepts of ‘ludification’ and ‘gamification’.

‘Body culture studies’ describe and compare bodily practices within the larger contexts of culture and society. This course explores the media’s role in portraying and perpetuating conventional structures of power and gender hierarchies. We place the discipline of body culture studies in this context and examine media representations of women and their bodies. Our modes of communication are deeply influenced by cultural expectations, which differ from person to person as language-use is a learned behaviour. The course describes and analyzes how gender-based differences in cultural conditioning affect written digital communication while we investigate the concept of the ‘glass ceiling’.

This course provides you with fascinating interdisciplinary insights into the latest developments in cultural studies. We include discussions that traditional related courses in politics and economics simply do not, thus enabling you to see things from a fresh perspective. This can help you expand your horizons and acquire the necessary skills to work in a globalized world with ever-changing, diverse working environments. This course can help you to understand how human beings work and play and why that matters.