Voice of the Shuttle:
Cultural Studies
Voice of the Shuttle is the place to go if you want an introduction to a
particular branch of contemporary theoretical thought within the field of
cultural studies. It has been developed by English department at the
University of Santa Barbara. Apparently, some people have resisted the
temptation to enjoy the beautiful scenery and have spent hours compiling
some of the best resources on the web. The site covers the whole gamut of
cultural studies, although some are sections of the site are more well-
developed than others. The site can be overwhelming if you aren.t looking
for anything in particular, so begin with an end in mind. The index on
the top right of the site lists all of the general topics that the site
addresses.
In the General Resources section, the Border Crossing Section is
particularly well done. There is a wealth of information on all sorts of
borders in contemporary American life. For those looking to improve their
understanding of the history and significance of the border in the
Southwestern United States, you need to look no further.
The section on Marxism and the Frankfurt school includes links to many
Marx and Engels primary texts, but then jumps to the Frankfurt school
without mentioning Gramsci. In spite of this omission, Voice of the
Shuttle does provide links to many articles written by Adorno, Benjamin,
Horkeheimer, Marcuse, and more contemporary Marxist thinkers including
Jameson and Lukacs.
The sections of the site related to Popular/Mass Culture and Media Studies
should be of particular interest to teachers interested in having their
students reflect on fundamental questions through conversation on the mass
media. It is my belief that one of the best ways to engage students in
questions of dominant ideologies and cultural values is to ask them
questions about the media that they consume.
Contemporary
Philosophy, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Thought
This is part of a larger site organized by the University of Colorado at
Denver. It begins with two series of links that deliver pretty nice
primers to post-modernism and critical theory. The subsequent section
titled resources provides links to other meta-sites, although I didn.t
find many of them helpful other than the Theory.org which contains, among
other things, trading cards of the most celebrated critical theorists!
The rest of the site is organized by the names of influential thinkers
within contemporary philosophy, critical theory, and postmodern thought.
Each section includes several profiles of the intellectual, a fair
sampling of secondary resources, and more often than not, links to
articles or sections of books written by them. I recommend this site as
the place to begin when you have little background knowledge on someone,
as a grad student, you should probably know about.
Critical
Pedagogy on the Web
This site began as Christy Stevens. final project for an independent study
in educational theory at the University of Iowa. The site is divided into
sections on .Critical Pedagogy Definitions,. .Theories and Theorists,.
.Key Terms and Concepts,. and .Links.. The definitions section offers an
excellent but brief overview of critical pedagogy and contains some links
to famous quotations about critical pedagogy. The theories and theorists
section traces the history of critical pedagogy from The Frankfurt School,
to Paulo Friere, to post-modern contributions, and eventually to Henri
Giroux. This section is useful primarily to get a basic sense of the
roots and trajectory of the field of study. The key terms and concepts
section provides a thorough and accessible introduction to the major ideas
of Paulo Friere, who many view as the father of critical pedagogy. Since
Friere.s ideas developed over a long career and he published so many
different books and articles, it can be difficult to locate his most
important ideas. Other than reading .Pedagogy of the Oppressed. this site
is the best introduction to his ideas that I have seen. My favorite part
of the site is the links section, particularly the links to resources
related to feminism, race and post colonialism, post-modernism, and
sexuality and queer theory. Each of these sections link to numerous
articles on how these contours of 20th century thought relate to the role
of schooling within a culture.
Critical
Pedagogy
Multicultural
Education Internet Resource Guide
Multicultural
Infusion Project