For the Get to Know Series, we’ve gathered together our collection of an author’s books and information about them, their work, and background. Combined with other materials such as reviews, interviews, discussions, and more, we hope it will become a resource to find out more about their life and works, and place their books in context.
As February 2022 marks what would have been his 90th birthday, we begin the series with Stuart Hall, whose writings – both well-known and previously unpublished – have been brought together and published or reissued by Duke University Press since 2016.
Stuart Hall (1932–2014) is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost cultural theorists and public intellectuals of the late twentieth century. Though circulated, read, and taught for decades, Hall’s seminal essays are widely dispersed, with many pieces out of print or difficult to find. Stuart Hall: Selected Writings brings together Hall’s well-known works with previously unpublished ones to create a portrait of his wide-ranging intellectual and political investments. The volumes in the series, which include Hall’s memoir, are edited by major scholars and organized thematically, covering topics ranging from race, photography, and Marxism to the Caribbean, popular culture, and British politics. With this series, Duke University Press is the official home for the writings of Stuart Hall.
Writings on Media
“How refreshing and urgent to revisit Stuart Hall’s formative ideas about racism, identity, ideology, and media at the very moment that media has become such a contested site and source of ideological work. Hall’s searing and critical insights about what media does, how it works, and why it matters have never been as pressing as they are today. In our global and national media ecologies where disputes over facts, epistemological turmoil, fake news, and ideological rigidities are routine, Charlotte Brunsdon’s curated collection of Hall’s essays on the media is a remarkable and indispensable gift.”-Herman Gray, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Selected Writings on Race and Difference
“It’s hard to imagine a better time for the arrival of this book. Political uncertainty and reactionary posturing are a defining feature of recent months. The care and thoughtfulness carried in its pages are very welcome, the sense of context and sharpness of insight feel invaluable. . . . Hall’s writing was always political, but here we find him exercising his prodigious analytical skills on explictly political questions and issues. The result is something to behold. A book that scans across time telling stories that are likely to matter whenever the book is read.”-David Beer, Hong Kong Review of Books
Selected Writings on Marxism
“It’s hard to imagine a better time for the arrival of this book. Political uncertainty and reactionary posturing are a defining feature of recent months. The care and thoughtfulness carried in its pages are very welcome, the sense of context and sharpness of insight feel invaluable. . . . Hall’s writing was always political, but here we find him exercising his prodigious analytical skills on explictly political questions and issues. The result is something to behold. A book that scans across time telling stories that are likely to matter whenever the book is read.”-David Beer, Hong Kong Review of Books
The Stuart Hall: Selected Writings Series is edited by Stuart Hall’s widow Catherine Hall, of University College, London; and Bill Schwarz of Queen Mary, University of London, both literary executors of his estate. The individual volumes, organized thematically, are edited by students and colleagues of Hall’s, often major and influential figures in their own right.
Resources
Stuart Hall Foundation
Inspired by the life and work of Professor Stuart Hall, the Stuart Hall Foundation is committed to public education, addressing urgent questions of race and inequality in culture and society through talks and events, and building a network of SHF scholars and artists in residence. Find out more.