Teaching cultural studies in Iran: Obstacles, experiences and recommendations

Knowledge and perspective about cultural studies have been debated extensively in the global academic spaces and partly within Iran. However, the pedagogical requirements of this tradition have rarely been a topic for discussion. As a matter of fact, cultural studies’ project inevitably requires teaching critical skills and analyses in classrooms. Relying on educational experiences of the author, the current paper aims to introduce some major challenges in the process of cultural studies pedagogy. Reliance on a formal teaching separated from social context, ambivalence and confusion on the concept of culture and cultural theory, difficulties in providing critical teaching and drawing boundaries of popular culture are amongst the major challenges faced by academics attached with cultural studies in Iran. It therefore can be argued that to be efficient and dynamic, and to preserve its distinction as a critical discipline, cultural studies needs today to employ educational initiatives that not only serve multi-layered historical understanding of Iranian society and culture but also fit with a reformistic cultural policy-making.