Background:
Cultural Studies has been quite popular over the last 20 years. The focus of the enterprise provided a critique of capitalist “high culture” within the context of Western modernity and its basis in “instrumental reason.” A lot of time has been spent on identifying and moralizing the status of race, gender, class, and the role these factors play in the globalization of instrumental reason adopted by both capitalism and communism.

While there are many factors contributing to the status of Cultural Studies, the primary problem has been that Cultural Studies has emphasized the negative side of critique without providing a corrective direction. In light of that, a Contemporary Cultural Studies Series which is critical in a positive sense is required. That means the what and the how of our life-world must be articulated, as well as the concrete possibilities for becoming a positive impetus to create a meaningful, dignified intercultural life-world.

Contemporary Cultural Studies can have an important role in the identification and actualization of common factors of diverse cultures, creating and maintaining respect for others and human dignity. This includes a positive critique of our own contemporary world and its positive changes.

Topics of Interest:
• Contemporary theoretical, philosophical, and methodological discussions which are critically oriented as defined above,
• Studies of diverse conceptions of nature which exhibit the above criteria, such as rethinking new social configurations in architecture, healthcare, aging, city planning, finances, and governance, and
• Investigations into the new, symbolic mythologies that are taking hold and their variation across cultures, new technologies rearranging the social landscape, and so forth.

Editor Biographies

Professor J.J. Pilotta is an internationally recognized Sociologist and theoretician, as well as practitioner of Communication science. He has BA from SUNY Oswego, MA Sociology from Ohio University, PhD from Ohio University in Communication and Ph.D. from University of Toronto. His research interests include phenomenological sociology and communication; contemporary United States’ European, and Chinese social and political theory; cross-cultural communication, methodology economic innovation; contemporary Chinese and Phenomenological philosophy. He has authored more than 25 monographs, over 100 research articles, and has presented more than 125 papers at regional, national, and international conferences. He is senior editor or member of the editorial boards of many international research journals, and he has won roughly 10 national and international prizes for research, lecturing, and consulting activities. Former faculty member at Ohio State University in School of Communication for 29 years

Algis Mickunas is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Ohio University. He earned a B.S. from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1958, a B.A. from DePaul University in 1962, an M.A. from DePaul in 1963, and a Ph.D. from Emory University in 1969. He also studied at Cologne University, Germany, from 1963 to 1964; Freiburg University, Germany, from 1964 to 1965; and the University of Chicago from 1965 to 1966. He has published and co-published over 40 books in three languages and over 300 articles in five languages. In 1970, he co-founded the International Circle of Husserl Scholars; in 1976, he co-founded the International Circle of Merleau-Ponty Scholars; and in 1980, he was appointed to the Board of Directors for The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology. The Lithuanian Ministry of Culture awarded Professor Mickunas with the “Outstanding Foreign Contributor to Humanities and Social Sciences in Lithuania” prize, and in 2008, he was appointed to the Lithuanian Academy of Science. He has received four honorary doctoral degrees. And, in 2017, he was awarded both the “Knight of the Cross” by the president of Lithuania as well as the status of “Laureate Fellow” by the International Communicology Institute.

John Murphy is Professor of Sociology at the University of Miami. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University BSc from Kent State University and MA in Sociology from the Ohio University. His areas of research are social philosophy and community-based intervention. He is a major contributor to research projects IN the international arena, served as international project manager and fund raiser He has delivered scholarly papers and lectures in multiple countries and is recognized for his interdisciplinary work His most recent work is devoted to narrative medicine. He has written and edited 35 books and over 100 articles.