English Cultural Studies is an academic field concerned with the analysis of English-speaking cultures (with the exception of North America), including both contemporary phenomena and historical developments. Cultural Studies proceed from the basic assumption that systems of knowledge, texts and media, but also rituals and everyday practices not only reflect a society, its norms and structures, but also constitute them in the first place. How such norms, social hierarchies and cultural identities are constructed, i.e. ‘made’, is therefore one of the central questions. Cultural Studies are primarily concerned with how cultural belonging is ascribed or negotiated; they address the significance and intersection of categories such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, class, etc. for the relationship between the individual and the community, i.e. for self-identification as well as for processes of cultural inclusion and exclusion. To this end, cultural phenomena in various media, in ‘high’ culture as well as in popular and mass culture are analysed. Although literature in the narrower sense is not excluded from the analysis, it does not play a privileged role either. Rather, the aim is to identify and understand parallels and differences between media and text types. A broad concept of culture also includes everyday practices, texts, and material objects and emphasises their relevance for the creation of cultural meaning, the constitution of identities, and the production and reproduction of social power relations. Finally, cultures are not understood as closed systems, but are considered in their historical change and in exchange with other cultures (e.g. through migration or processes of globalisation).