Abstract

In response to Hartmut Böhme’s programmatic sketch of future directions for the study of culture, this contribution wants to sensitize readers to the significance of culturally specific academic traditions, which continue to inform research on cultural phenomena. Because of the great disciplinary and institutional differences between Kulturwissenschaften (in Germany) and the respective traditions of ‚cultural studies‘ in Britain and the US, questions about the future of the study of culture can only meaningfully be posed in the context of the discipline’s internationalization. Since any kind of research is inevitably embedded within specific discursive contexts, exchanges and dialogues between the German and international research traditions of studying culture appear indispensable. Following the lead of Mieke Bal’s idea of ‚travelling concepts‘, there arises a need for scholars in the study of culture to engage with issues of translation and translatability.