Extract

Transcription: Cultures - Concepts - Controversies is dedicated to publishing work that explores culture as cultures; work that interrogates the concepts, methods, and theories through which we map these explorations of cultures; and work that intervenes into the controversies that necessarily arise when we nego­ tiate the complexities of cultures and cultural concepts. Transcription focuses on, yet is by no means limited to, interdiscursive explo­ rations of North American cultures and cultural practices. Recognizing that cul­ tures tend to travel across regional and national boundaries - and increasingly do so in the age of digital media - , Transcription at the same time holds that con­ cepts like cultural difference and nation remain relevant. For whenever bound­ aries collapse, new ones are likely to be formed. The term ‘transcription’ acknowledges that all cultures engage in acts of copying, translating, and transforming performed, spoken, written, or digitalized sounds, languages, and codes from one medium into another. Only as close readers of these acts and processes of transformation can we achieve cultural literacy. With its multiple resonances within the human, social, and natural sci­ ences the concept transcription also creates the frame for a wide range of trans­ disciplinary perspectives. Our close readings therefore aspire to travel far. Referring, more specifically, to processes of encoding and transferring genetic information, Transcription recognizes the concurrence of cultural change, epis- temological shifts, and scientific development. Taking up the challenges that the natural sciences pose to the humanities and social sciences, Transcription propo­ ses to engage in...