Culture Wars and Social Change

Join us for a public lecture on the history of Culture Wars and a panel discussion unpacking the many battlegrounds today, from immigration to identity politics.

5.30pm: Culture Wars and Social Change

by Professor Nick Hubble

Culture wars are battles between authoritarians and libertarians over what should constitute the behavioural norms of society. While in America these have been fought largely between the religious right and secular liberals, in Britain the dividing lines are just as likely to be over attitudes to the monarchy, social class and national identity, including the rise of Englishness.

This public lecture will explore this history and relate it to some of the key events of the last ten years, such as the EU referendum and the 2019 General Election. In considering the age and gender gap in social attitudes to topics ranging from immigration to trans rights, Prof Hubble will examine how identity and values are shifting in the context of rapid social change and finish by outlining some possible future scenarios.

6pm: Culture Wars - A Panel Discussion

Building on the historical context and picking up on themes discussed in Professor Nick Hubble's talk, we invite a panel of experts to comment on 'battlegrounds' of the 'culture wars' before unpacking the interrelationships in a panel discussion, chaired by Professor Sarita Malik.

Gareth Dale - Environmental Policy

Anita Howarth - Media & Migration

Nick Hubble - Class & Nationhood

Jasbinder Nijjar - Institutional Racism; Radical History

Thomas Willett - LGBTQ+ Experience

Followed by audience Q&A

* Due to venue limitations, this event will not be livestreamed

Biographies:

Gareth Dale is a Reader in Political Economy at Brunel. His current research focuses on the growth paradigm, and the political economy of the environment, particularly technology fetishism and climate change. His previous interests include the life and work of Karl Polanyi, Otto Neurath, the history of East Germany, the political economy of Eastern Europe, social movement theory, and international migration.

Anita Howarth is a Senior Lecturer at Brunel, specializing in the interaction between journalism/media, politics and risk. She has a particular interest in how traditional and social media engage with existing policies on social justice and (in)justice in ways that legitimize or challenge, resist or disrupt dominant perspectives.

Nick Hubble is Professor of Modern and Contemporary English at Brunel. They are the co-editor of the BCCW’s ‘Decades’ book series (2014-2025) published by Bloomsbury. Nick's other books include Mass Observation and Everyday Life (2006), The Proletarian Answer to the Modernist Question (2017) and Growing Old with the Welfare State (2019). They currently hold a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to investigate ‘Self-reflexivity, class consciousness, culture wars and social change in Britain’.

Sarita Malik is Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Impact and Professor of Media, Culture and Communications at Brunel. Her research examines issues of inequality and culture (representation, production and participation) in shifting sociopolitical, cultural and technological contexts. Since the 1990s, Sarita's work has made a major contribution to how 'diversity', social justice and the role of arts and culture are understood through policy and practice, most notably in the film and television sectors.

Jasbinder S. Nijjar is a Lecturer in Social Sciences at Brunel University London. His work examines the relationship between institutional racism and militarised policing in Britain. His forthcoming book, The Racial Politics of Police Warfare, is due to be published by Manchester University Press. He is also on the Council of Management of the Institute of Race Relations and a trustee of the Monitoring Group, two leading anti-racism charities in Britain.

Thomas Willett is a Doctoral Researcher in Creative Writing at Brunel, throughout his academic career, Thomas has focused his writing on the contemporary LGBTQ+ experience, subjectivity and the self, love and relationships. Through his novel and research, Thomas explores spaces of queer transformation, both corporal and incorporeal, and how we can disrupt the binary nature of gender, sex and power.