© 2008 The Author Journal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Sociology Compass 2/1 (2008): 16–33, 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00058.x Blackw ellPublishing Ltd Oxford,UK SOCO So cio lo g y Co m pass 1751-9020 ©2007 TheAutho r J o urnalCo m pilat io n©2007 Blackw ellPublishing Ltd 058 10.1111/j .17 51-9020.2007 .00058 .x Novem ber2007 0 16??? 33??? Orig inalArt icles Cultural Studies, Sociology, Popular Culture Cultural Studies, Sociology, Popular Culture When the University Went ‘Pop’: Exploring Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture, and the Rising Interest in the Study of Popular Culture Lynn Schofield Clark* University of Denver Abstract This article examines why the study of popular culture has taken off as a subject of university course offerings and as a topic of scholarly inquiry since the 1980s. Placing the current explorations of popular culture in historical context, the article argues that popular culture’s study and studies in the sociology of culture can illuminate many of the classic concerns that animate sociology and related fields, such as the social organization and power of institutions, debates about public life and the formation of public opinion, concerns about the relationship between consumption, social status, and politics of the privileged elite, and the role of media in the development of social movements and in individual and subcultural understandings. The article considers how popular cultural studies are currently shaping the study of social life, and concludes by considering trends that might be encouraged among students and emergent scholars seeking to study in this area. Introduction ‘Pop Ph.D.s: How TV Ate Academics’, a recent New York Times headline reads (Lewis 2006). In this news story, popular culture is presented as a surprising and somewhat questionable topic for a thesis. In another news story, similarly detailing the rise in the number of pop culture dissertations, a reporter muses about the sophisticated-sounding theses he has reviewed, noting sardonically, ‘Is the crime of academic jargon its unfailing ability to dignify nonsense?’ (MacCormaic 2004). In the USA’s National Forum, a conservative scholar bemoans the fact that ‘departments feature a multitude of courses on popular culture’ that have replaced the once-prominent study of the classics in literature and history, citing this development as illustrative of the fact that ‘American institutions of higher learning have deeply compromised their claims to academic integrity’ (Wilson, 1999). Such reports might give one pause. Is a rise in the study of popular culture indicative of a dumbed-down society, a failing of university life – perhaps a threat to Western civilization itself?