The Association for Cultural Studies (ACS) is delighted to announce the second ACS Summer Institute, which will be held from 22-27 July 2013 at the Department of Media and Communications, Faculty of Cultural Studies, of Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt in Austria. The theme of the 2013 Institute is

The Sights/Sites of Cultural Studies.

The ACS Institute will be a forum for critical discussions of important perspectives on cultural studies today. Our paired theme is intended to forge productive and provocative conversations between two related, yet distinct, sets of issues. On the one hand, we will explore the question of where cultural studies can (and should) best be practiced in the 21st century, and what (if any) meaningful common ground exists between the different existing formations of cultural studies. On the other hand, we will engage in a special focus on visual culture, and the question of what cultural studies can contribute to a deeper understanding of a world dominated by images.

The Institute will provide an intense and rewarding pedagogical experience for postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers who will have the opportunity to spend the week learning from lectures and seminars delivered by five keynote speakers and a faculty staff of leading cultural studies scholars from around the world. The following keynote speakers have been confirmed:

  • Ien Ang (University of Western Sydney, Australia)
  • Gisela Elvira Canepa Koch (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru)
  • John Clarke (Open University, UK)
  • Lothar Mikos (University of Film and Television, Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany)
  • Constance Penley (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

Following on the great success of the inaugural ACS Institute in 2011 (at the University of Gent, Belgium), the 2013 edition of the Institute will bring together people from a wide range of disciplines to explore what it means to conduct cultural studies. We invite and encourage participation from researchers who work in disciplines such as cultural studies, visual studies, film studies, media studies, cultural sociology, cultural anthropology, literary theory and criticism, discourse analysis, new literacy studies, educational studies, rhetorical criticism etc.

The Association for Cultural Studies is the premiere international association of cultural studies and hosts the biennial Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference.