WTF are Culture, Media, and Leisure Studies?

Please note: This article was written in 2015 and imported in 2022

As a student at Bucknell University (about 5 years ago), I entered my undergrad experience with no idea what I was getting into. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. In terms of a “major” — I was undeclared going into college. But luckily I had received some of the best advice.

“Don’t pick a major yet, first go to school. Then see, whatever you do well in and enjoy, just major in that.”

Intersectionality (or intersectionalism) is the study of intersections between forms or systems of oppression, domination or discrimination.

It was that advice that allowed me to major in Sociology. It was this academic discipline that lead me to realize — issues and perspectives of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and other social categorizations of the like all influence one another. Hence, intersectionality. Approaching sophomore year, I leaned into an even more specific focus, declaring my major … “Sociology, with a concentration of Culture, Media, & Leisure studies.” WTF — you may ask your self. Let’s say, within the study of people, I was studying how those people create and engage with culture. The forms of media that are results of said culture. In conjunction with studying the ways we spend the little bit of free time we are alotted in our capitalist society. Often times, and increasingly so, this leisure time, is indeed time of media consumption.

It was under the advisory of Alexander Tristan Riley that I found focus in the coursework he developed around culture, media, and leisure studies. In his classes examining the works of Foucault, Sartre, Bordieu, and many others that I quickly realized how our social “classifications” influence or consumption of media and the manners in which we spend our time.

A big factor. In fact, an inescapable one. Far from an elephant in the room. Is Technology. Technology is the driver, warden, messiah, and common denominator when it comes to the media we consume and the way culture is created.

The rest of the work you read on my media profile, page, blog, feed (however you’d like to “classify” it) will revolve around my search. What search? The search for solutions. Solutions where culture, media, and technology intersect.