Conjunctural thinking – “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”: Lawrence Grossberg remembers Stuart Hall

Abstract

Lawrence Grossberg, a key figure in Cultural Studies, both in the USA and internationally, reminisces about Stuart Hall as a political intellectual and teacher. He talks about Stuart Hall's impact on him, as well as on Cultural Studies, education, and the Left more generally. The interview traces how Hall and Cultural Studies have been taken up, not only in the UK and the USA but also in other parts of the world. Grossberg points out some of the misunderstood aspects of Hall's intellectual and political contributions, and perhaps more importantly, how Hall taught him and others on the Left to think and act conjuncturally, defining new practices of intellectual work as cultural politics. Grossberg, together with Leslie G. Roman, thinks about the difficult state and future of Cultural Studies and education in the current context. The interview concludes with a moving homage about Hall's legacies as an extraordinary teacher and public intellectual.

Keywords:

• Stuart Hall
• education
• Cultural Studies
• New Left
• Leftist politics
• public intellectual
• Gramsci

Notations:
LG:	=	Responses by Lawrence Grossberg
LGR:	=	Questions asked by Leslie G. Roman

Notations:
LG:	=	Responses by Lawrence Grossberg
LGR:	=	Questions asked by Leslie G. Roman

Notes

1. This phrase originates from French writer, Romain Rolland, who coined it. Gramsci then took it up extensively in his speeches to and with workers’ circles about the Paris Commune, Marx, Romain Rolland, the French Revolution and the emancipation of women. See Sanctucci, La Porto, and Hobsbawm (2010, p. 121). Thank you to Dennis Dworkin and Iain Chambers for pointing this out. Like many, I had assumed mistakenly that Gramsci was the originator since the phrase was popularized as his alone.