Cultural studies

Carrie Tirado Bramen enjoys a wide-ranging analysis of an important concept that has recently been neglected by scholars

Peter Osborne is intrigued by an account of the political and philosophical ideas that shaped the West German left

The author of Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century on finding girls and women in history, archaeology’s ‘heroic’ age and the cultural impact of ‘Egyptomania’

Lucy Bolton is intrigued by an analysis of changing racial attitudes based on the career of a great Hollywood icon

Ruby Guyatt enjoys a wide-ranging account of how developments in religion have often been shaped by changes in the climate

Taipei’s soft power play should work as long as it keeps things apolitical, say academics

The cultural historian and author of The Art of Self-Improvement on positive transformations, the Stoic approach to life, and what self-help books can reveal about individuals and society

John Gilbey is intrigued and disturbed by an occasionally irreverent account of how environmental disaster haunts popular culture 

Despite its insights into democracy, this loosely linked collection of previously published essays and reviews leaves Lennard Davis unimpressed 

Tributes paid to ‘an innovator, activist and passionate teacher’ who provided essential support to Chinese NGOs

The Iranian-American academic, who explores the experience of life split between two cultures in Hyphen, on the politics of punctuation

The historian and author of Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism on cool kids, a comic book shop as edgy as its contents, and international culture wars

Tributes paid to authority on the American Dream who ‘confounded the supposed dichotomy between the academy and activism’

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers 

Ambitious plans should enable research centre to apply its unique insights to ‘contemporary cultural, political and social understanding’

A PowerPoint marathon or a ‘captured’ lecture will always be a pale imitation of a live experience, in which an expert practitioner taps into ‘the dangerous energy of all those watching eyes’, says Richard Sugg

The linguist and author of How We Read Now on the power of reading, what is lost when we rely on digital media, and the future of publishing

Roberta Mock explores a tradition of performance that still raises urgent political questions today

Ruth Heholt discovers how supernatural fiction is deeply revealing about changing attitudes to class and gender 

Kristen Ghodsee applauds a journalist’s essay collection that offers sharp insights into post-communist eastern Europe

Robert Eaglestone relishes a business history that is as much of a page-turner as a novel 

Darren Lilleker enjoys a useful study of how leaders have tried to shape their public images

The English professor and author of Bookishness on what drew her to book history and how humans and computers will shape reading in the future

Matthew Broome is impressed by a study of our changing ideas about dementia that combines scientific and cultural analysis

Catherine Clinton enjoys a rich analysis of how the echoes of America’s bloodiest war still resound today

The historian and author of Fat on finding the door into the historical and cultural study of fatness and exploring the meanings of eating and not eating in the West

The pandemic has brought the power and consolations of scholarship to the fore. But with a particularly grim Halloween upon us, M. R. James’ ghost stories warn us that the pursuit of knowledge does not always end well, writes Shane McCorristine

Living in a parallel universe of perfect systems and obedient citizens could blow up in vice-chancellors’ faces like Chernobyl, warns Craig Brandist 

Lennard Davis is impressed by a compendious account of all the ways the hearing world has tried to put Deaf people right

Clive Bloom finds the rap sheet on an iconic cultural figure frustratingly incomplete

Popularity of Korean films and music drives emerging field of Hallyu studies and boosts Korean universities’ internationalisation

If a college education makes people more liberal, it is potentially the best remedy for bigotry, says Kate Eichhorn

Charlotte Jones enjoys an account of a hugely ambitious writer who challenges many of our assumptions about studying literature 

Tributes paid to a pioneering feminist scholar who ‘made conversation glitter’

Bryan Cheyette considers an intriguing account of the stories we tell ourselves about slavery

Eleanor Lybeck explores the striking links between ‘textual overproduction’ in the 19th century and today

Leo Mellor is impressed by a bold reinterpretation of British culture in the middle of the past century

Steven Groarke reflects on the strange process of trying to preserve a historical instant for posterity

John Gilbey enjoys a quirky tour of the communications tool we seem unable to do without

Andrew Blake explains why Beethoven’s days may be numbered

Chloe Chard considers a wide-ranging but not very focused attempt to illuminate jokes

Kehinde Andrews is disappointed by a survey of thinking designed to take us beyond the limits of current politics

Angelia R. Wilson enjoys a subtle analysis of the political uses of the figure of the ‘Mexican cowboy’

Book of the week: Jerry Brotton is enthralled by a book that seeks to overturn just about everything we think we know about maps

Gail Marshall applauds an impressive analysis of our changing images of Japan

Will Brooker considers the structures and intrastructures behind the creation of superheroes

Tributes paid to ‘gentlemanly’ scholar of folklore, fairy tales and fantasy fiction

The literature expert on what Spain makes of the Gothic, what we can learn from ‘mad scientists’ and struggles with his surname

To what extent have the Kardashians and their kind truly empowered women and overturned social and cultural rules? asks Milly Williamson

Today’s conspiracists see all social phenomena as resulting from dark intrigues – but why, Jane O’Grady wants to know

Farah Mendlesohn considers a study of fantasy that ranges across a wide spectrum of genres

Emma Dabiri’s research uncovers the ways that our immediate reactions to people are still underpinned by the ideologies of ‘scientific racism’

Novels penned under a fake identity speak their own truths about fiction, says Rohan McWilliam

The ‘killer ape’ theory of violent behaviour managed to grip the public imagination for many years, learns Marcia Holmes

Georgina Laragy on how common cause came to be consigned to the corner of people’s minds

Book of the week: Fears that something fascist-like will rise again permeate the moment, writes Robert Eaglestone

A study of the unnamed author offers a fresh angle on some of the tired debates about 20th-century literature, says Abigail Williams

Book of the week: Lincoln Allison mulls the consequences of a cultural shift from traditional morality to reason

Book of the week: the horrific mutilations of wartime provided fertile ground for research, writes Linda Maynard

Kristen R. Ghodsee learns how Western cultural products imported into the Soviet Union allowed people to travel in their imaginations, despite being physically restricted