The End of an Era? Graduation 2009

Congratulations to the last cohort of graduates from the BA (hons) Media & Cultural Studies at Nottingham Trent University who were awarded their degrees at yesterday's graduation ceremony. Our congratulations also go to those students who received their Joint Honours degrees in Media & Cultural Studies.

This is also quite a sad day for those of us who developed and worked on the degree as it feels like the end of a particular chapter of our history. As the first course leader back in 1996, I am perhaps one of the people who feels this particularly keenly. Back then our degree marked a new stage in the development of cultural studies at NTU, taking the traditional strengths in textual analysis and combining them with a new emphasis on lived practice and everyday life. However, these interests live on in the new BA Media which started in 2007, most obviously in the pathway in Popular Culture. And, of course, cultural studies also lives on in our research which is perhaps less easily shaped by market forces. (Or maybe not? But my opinions about the media-ization of cultural studies as a field are perhaps best left for another day!)

So along with our congratulations, we wish this year's graduates the very best of luck with their future. And we'd like to take the opportunity to extend our thanks and our best wishes to those graduates throughout the degree's history.