Cultural Studies (Research)

8th in the UK for our research outputs in Communications, Cultural and Media Studies in REF 2021 (Times Higher Education)
16th in the UK for Communication and Media Studies (Complete University Guide 2025)

Cultural Studies engages critically with the study of everyday life – with the ‘deep ordinariness’ of the world.

Studying cultural consumption, popular culture, multicultures, cultural values and the radicalism or conservatism of cultural politics involves thinking about culture as it is felt and lived. Cultural Studies at Sussex can be researched using a humanities (textual) approach or social scientific (empirical) methods, or a combination of both.

The Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies is the largest research centre at the University, with workshops, conferences and events with leading external speakers – all of which you’re welcome to attend. Our leading scholars apply innovative methods and cutting-edge approaches to culture, power and agency. Projects can be co-supervised by faculty in another school as appropriate.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision. We’ll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities described in this prospectus. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to government or regulatory requirements, or unanticipated staff changes, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.