Searching for Meaghan (Morris)

Main Article Content

Lawrence Grossberg
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3108-3120

Abstract

I am delighted to be here celebrating the unique career of Meaghan Morris, who is, after all, not just a precious intellectual partner (and sometimes mentor) but also a deeply valued friend.1 As it turned out, the invitation to speak at an event honouring Meaghan on the occasion of her retirement provided the pressure I needed to write something I have been trying to write—and postponing—for decades. Why try for so long? Because she is, in my opinion, one of the most original and dedicated practitioners of cultural studies. Why try for so long? Because I could never find a comfortable way of doing it. I would try identifying some representative sample, some set of exemplary texts, that would enable me to make visible the commonalities and diversities that define the singularity of her analytic practice, the contextuality of her political thematic and the trajectory of her career. Every time I thought I had settled on the texts, I would remember another of my favourites, or Meaghan would send me a new one, inevitably shattering my selection and the comfortable assumptions I had made about how to ‘read’ them.

Article Details

Section
The Meaghan Morris Festival
Author Biography

Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lawrence Grossberg is the Morris Davis Distinguished Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. His most recent works include 'We All Want to Change the World: The Paradox of the U.S. Left (A Polemic)', available free online, and 'Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right'.