CULTSTUD-L turned three years old earlier this summer and, by and large, I think it's been a good three years. In thinking about the range of conversations we've had on the list over that time span, however, I'm struck by some of the topics that we haven't discussed -- or at least that we haven't discussed very much. Topics that one might expect a cultural studies listserv to have touched on with a bit more frequency. Before getting to the actual topics, however, let me hedge a few bets first.

For starters, it may not be fair to say that the items listed below have never come up -- in some cases, I know they've at least hovered around the edges of our conversations in semi-visible ways. And it's certainly possible that, at some point since 1996, there's been an extended thread on one or more of these topics that I'm simply forgetting about. Still, I don't think any of these have been recurring subjects for us in anywhere near the proportion to which they're recurring issues for cultural studies.

Second, I make no claims that these are the only -- or even the most important -- under-discussed topics on CULTSTUD-L. These are simply the four that jumped out at me when I sat down to write this column. Your mileage may vary . . . and, for that matter, if you ask me about this sometime next week, so might mine.

Third, I'm as guilty (if that's the right word, and I'm not sure it is) of not raising these issues as anyone else, and I'm not especially concerned with the questions of why these topics haven't been brought up more often or who (if anyone) might be at fault here. Of far greater interest to me (and this is actually one of the reasons for starting this column thang up in the first place) is the possibility of stimulating some lively new discussions. Even if only to disagree with everything I say here.

Finally, I'm not sure that there's any set direction I would want or expect conversations that might arise from the list below to go in. Which is why there are as many open-ended questions below as there are simple declarative statements and opinionated claims. While I'll undoubtedly use this column to take polemical stands at some point, for now, I'm more interested in simply putting some hopefully productive questions on the table.

Race, gender, class, orientation
Given the importance that cultural studies often places on the politics of any/all of the categories listed above, I'm struck by the fact that we've talked so little about any of them over the years. Do we simply assume that we all share an understanding of these issues that requires no discussion? Or are we worried about the potential "messiness" of starting a potentially controversial conversation? (Okay, maybe this is a case where I'm at least a little concerned with the "why haven't we talked about this?" question after all. Though I'd be happy to see conversations about, say, resisting racism or promoting fighting patriarchy take place without ever discussing the "why not before?" question.)

Pedagogy and cultural studies
While I think we've had a number of pedagogy-related queries (e.g., "I'm teaching a class on XXX. Can anyone recommend a text?") over the years, I don't think we've talked a whole lot about the relationship between cultural studies and what actually happens in our classrooms. How, for instance, does one teach cultural studies? How does "doing" cultural studies influence the ways we teach non-cultural studies courses? Who do/can/should we teach cultural studies to? I'm also admittedly curious about those moments when I've heard people (not necessarily on CULTSTUD-L) say that they're teaching cultural studies to frosh and sophomores . . . and wondering (a) what sort of wunderkind frosh and sophomores they have at their school and/or (b) what sort of cultural studies they're actually teaching.

International differences in cultural studies
With the exception of a discussion a year or two back about differences in the academic publishing market between Australia and the US, I suspect that a casual "outsider" looking in on the list's discussions might come away believing that "cultural studies" must be a pretty stable area of scholarly work for people from so many different countries to talk about it without even any minor disputes over how, say, Canadian inflections of cultural studies are distinct from US inflections. And I know that's not because no such differences exist -- between any two areas one might pick, not just Canada and the US. [Though watch the Columns page about this time next week for at least one such discussion.]

What is cultural studies anyway?
I know. It's one of the most asked questions in the field (assuming, mind you, that "field" is an accurate descriptor for it) and some folks would rather get on with "doing" (practicing? living? writing?) cultural studies than to go around this particular maypole once again. At the same time, given the discussions we have had over the years, I think that, even beyond the international inflections mentioned above, there are a number of different senses floating around on the list about what this thing called "cultural studies" is and/or should be -- which makes it something of a surprise to me that there haven't been more moments when people have piped up and said, "Hey! That's not cultural studies!" or (in a less confrontational vein) "Hmm, I'd never thought of cultural studies that way before. Tell me more!"